US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has challenged Russian President Vladimir Putin to categorically state he will not invade Ukraine.
The challenge came after US President Joe Biden said on Thursday there was now every indication Russia was planning to invade Ukraine – words that coincided with Ukrainian forces and pro-Moscow rebels trading fire.
Moscow, for its part, ejected the number two official from the US embassy in Moscow and released a strongly worded letter accusing Washington of ignoring its security demands. It threatened unspecified “military-technical measures”.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a surprise address to the United Nations Security Council on Thursday.Credit:AP
Early morning exchanges of fire between Ukraine and pro-Russian separatists raised alarm, with Western officials who have long warned that Moscow could try to create a pretext for an invasion saying they believed such a scenario was now unfolding.
“We have reason to believe they are engaged in a false flag operation to have an excuse to go in. Every indication we have is they’re prepared to go into Ukraine and attack Ukraine,” Biden told reporters as he departed the White House.
Biden ordered Blinken to change his travel plans at the last minute to speak at a United Nations Security Council meeting on Ukraine.
Blinken told the UN that Russian forces were preparing to launch an attack against Ukraine in the “coming days”, adding that Russia planned to manufacture a pretext for an attack on its neighbour. He warned that a so-called false flag operation could include a fake or real assault using chemical weapons.
Blinken said he had sent a letter to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov earlier on Thursday proposing a meeting in person in Europe next week.
He called on Russia to categorically state that it would not invade Ukraine.
“The Russian government can announce today that Russia will not invade Ukraine: state it clearly, state it plainly to the world,” Blinken said.
Russia denies planning to invade its neighbour and said this week it was pulling back some of the more than 100,000 troops it has massed near the frontier. Both Washington and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) says Russia has not withdrawn troops, but was in fact sending more forces.
“We see them fly in more combat and support aircraft. We see them sharpen their readiness in the Black Sea,” US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin, a retired army general, said at NATO headquarters in Brussels.
“We even see them stocking up their blood supplies. I was a soldier myself not that long ago. I know firsthand that you don’t do these sorts of things for no reason … and you certainly don’t do them if you’re getting ready to pack up and go home.”
Conflicting accounts
Ukraine and pro-Russian rebels gave conflicting accounts of shelling across the front in the Donbass separatist region. The details could not be established independently, but reports from both sides suggested an incident more serious than the routine ceasefire violations reported regularly in the area.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Moscow was “seriously concerned” about the reports of an escalation. Russia has long accused Kyiv of planning to provoke escalation as an excuse to seize rebel territory by force, which Ukraine denies.
Ukrainian Presidential President Volodymyr Zelensky (right) visits the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, which borders Russia.Credit:Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP
Britain’s Foreign Secretary Liz Truss called unrest at the frontline “a blatant attempt by the Russian government to fabricate pretexts for invasion”.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said the pro-Russian forces had shelled a kindergarten, in what he called a “big provocation”. Video footage released by Ukrainian police showed a hole through a brick wall in a room scattered with debris and children’s toys.
The separatists, for their part, accused government forces of opening fire on their territory four times in the past 24 hours.
Neither account could be verified. A Reuters photographer in the town of Kadiivka, in Ukraine’s rebel-held Luhansk region, heard the sound of some artillery fire from the direction of the line of contact, but was not able to determine details.
Austin said Washington was “still gathering details, but we have said for some time that the Russians might do something like this in order to justify a military conflict”.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance was “concerned that Russia is trying to stage a pretext for an armed attack against Ukraine”.
“They have enough troops, enough capabilities to launch a full-fledged invasion of Ukraine with very little or no warning time,” he said.
‘Forced to respond’
Russia delivered a letter to the US ambassador accusing Washington of having ignored its security demands, which include promising never to allow Ukraine to join NATO.
“In the absence of the readiness of the American side to agree on firm, legally binding guarantees of our security from the United States and its allies, Russia will be forced to respond, including through the implementation of military-technical measures,” the document said.
The US State Department said Russia had provided no explanation for its decision to eject Deputy Chief of Mission Bart Gorman from the US embassy in Moscow.
Reuters
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