According to US President Joe Biden, Russia is planning to attack Ukraine – including the capital Kiev. A diplomatic solution is still possible.
Biden was “convinced” that Russian President Vladimir Putin made the decision to invade Ukraine, he said in the White House on Friday. “We have reason to believe that the Russian military is planning and planning to attack Ukraine in the coming week, in the coming days,” Biden predicted. The US believes that Putin will also attack Kiev, “a city of 2.8 million innocent people.”
“Catastrophic” war
The White House is speaking so openly about Putin’s plans to thwart Moscow’s efforts to attack Ukraine under a pretext, Biden said. If Russia goes ahead with its plans, it will be responsible for a “catastrophic” and self-inflicted war. Among other things, Russia is trying to use false information as a pretext for an attack on Ukraine, said the US President.
150,000 Russian soldiers on the Ukrainian border
So far, the US government has emphasized that it does not know whether Putin is planning an attack on Ukraine. A US Department of Defense insider explained that around 40 to 50 percent of Russian troops are in “attack positions” on the border with Ukraine. Around 150,000 Russian soldiers are still at the border, he said – the number is higher than previously known. This high number of forces indicates that these Russian units could attack Ukraine without warning.
Satellite images released this week also show military activity by Russian troops in Belarus, on Russia’s annexed Crimea peninsula and in western Russia. According to the US company Maxar Technologies, new helicopter units, ground attack aircraft and drones are stationed in several locations in north-western Belarus. The satellite images also show tanks and troop carriers on an airplane 16 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, the company said.
Ukraine “surrounded” by Russian soldiers
A provocation by Ukraine would “contradict common sense” because of the Russian military build-up, said Joe Biden. Moscow is trying to portray Ukraine as an aggressor and is specifically relying on misinformation, such as an allegedly planned offensive in the eastern Donbass region. “There is no evidence to back up these claims, and it goes against common sense to think that Ukrainians would choose this moment, with more than 150,000 troops on the border, to end years of conflict,” Trump said The Ukrainian military has so far acted with good judgment and “restraint” It is a fact that the Russian soldiers have “surrounded” Ukraine: they are on Ukraine’s eastern border, in northeastern Belarus and in the south in the black sea stationed, according to Biden.
“Unnecessary bloodshed” can be avoided
According to the US President, the government in Moscow had not succeeded in splitting the West in the Ukraine crisis. “Despite Russia’s efforts to divide us at home and abroad, I can confirm that this has not happened,” he said. The West is unanimous in trying to stop Russia from invading Ukraine. This was announced by the French Presidential Office after a conversation between Head of State Emmanuel Macron and Biden, Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz and other top politicians. Such an invasion would change the geopolitical situation in Europe. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: “There is still a way to avoid unnecessary bloodshed.” After their phone call, the Western heads of state and government called on Russia to “give an urgently needed signal of de-escalation.”