President Biden stresses that it is not too late for Russia to return to the negotiating table.
The President of the United States Joe Biden According to him, he is now convinced that the Russian president Vladimir Putin has decided to attack Ukraine. According to Biden, diplomacy is an opportunity until the attack.
“Diplomacy is always an opportunity,” President Biden said.
Speaking at the press conference, Biden said it was reasonable to believe that Russia would attack Ukraine in the coming week or days, targeting the Ukrainian capital, Kiev.
– A city of 2.8 million innocent people, Biden added. In the aftermath of the press conference, Biden stressed on Twitter that it is still possible to return to the negotiating table.
– I say again: Russia can still choose diplomacy, Biden said in a tweet published in the official account of the US president.
– It is not too late to ease and return to the negotiating table, he continued.
In his previous tweet, Biden underlined Russia’s choice between war and the suffering it brings and diplomacy to secure everyone’s future.
Biden: It is illogical for Ukraine to plan an attack
According to Biden, Russia is trying to bring a false justification for the war. Among other things, Russia has accused Ukraine of planning an attack, on the basis of which Russia could in turn justify its own attack.
“There is simply no evidence for these allegations, and it is against the basic logic to believe that the Ukrainians would choose the moment to escalate the years-long conflict when there are more than 150,000 (Russian) soldiers at the country’s borders,” Biden said.
“All of these are in line with the playbook that the Russians have used in the past to provide a false justification for taking action against Ukraine,” Biden said at a news conference in the White House.
Biden also evaluates his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky the decision to leave Ukraine under threat of war when asked about Zelensky’s intentions to travel to the Munich Security Conference this weekend. According to Biden, the decision to seek a diplomatic solution may be either wise or not.
“But that’s his decision,” Biden stressed.
Media information: Nearly half of the troops surrounding Ukraine are on the offensive
Nearly half of the Russian troops surrounding Ukraine are in offensive stations, according to CNN and AFP. CNN, for example, was told by the U.S. Defense Authority, which has information on the latest assessment. According to the official, the Russian armed forces will continue to move troops towards the border. In the last 48 hours, the number of troops in attack stations has risen to 40-50 percent.
According to the news agency AFP, the United States has previously estimated that there are about 149,000 Russian soldiers near the border. If the Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine are included, there will be as many as 190,000 troops in the region. According to the news channel, there are now 120-125 battalion tactical groups at the border. One such group usually has about a thousand soldiers. Russia has denied intentions to invade Ukraine, which has managed to get Russia’s anger on its neck as it converges with both the EU and the military alliance NATO.
Russia has repeatedly demanded so-called security guarantees from the West to prevent NATO from expanding further east.
Johnson: It’s still possible to avoid unnecessary bleeding
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Boris Johnson there is still a chance to avoid unnecessary bloodshed that would follow a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine. According to the Prime Minister’s Office, Russia has continued to strengthen its forces near the Ukrainian border, although the Russian regime has denied the allegations.
According to Britain, about 7,000 additional troops would have come to the border. According to Johnson, avoiding bloodshed would require a tremendous show of solidarity from the West that has not been seen in recent history. Johnson commented on the situation in a statement issued by the Munich Security Conference above.
– Allies must speak with one voice to stress to President Putin how much he will pay for a new Russian invasion of Ukraine. Diplomacy can still be won, Johnson added.
“Russia would become an international wreck with the attack”
Biden spoke earlier on Friday with U.S. NATO allies. The purpose of the conference call was to finalize plans for economic sanctions against Russia. Western countries have threatened to slash sanctions on Russia if it redeploys troops to Ukraine.
– If Russia invaded Ukraine, it would become a rejection in the international community, said the US Deputy National Security Adviser on the International Economy Daleep Singhaccording to which Russia would remain isolated from the international financial markets, among other things.
In 2014, Russia occupied the Crimean peninsula and began a war in eastern Ukraine. Russian-backed separatists have been at war with Ukrainian forces for eight years. More than 14,000 people have been killed and more than 1.5 million have been displaced by the war.
Separatists in eastern Ukraine send civilians to Russia in eastern Ukraine separatist leader of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic Denis Pushilin told reporters on Friday about the evacuation of civilians to Russia. Pushilin claimed Ukraine was planning an attack on Russian-backed separatist areas.
The so-called separatist leader of the Luhansk People’s Republic Leonid Pasetshnik in turn, on Friday, called on residents to go to safety in Russia. Separatist regimes are in fact maintained by Russia. Putin has ordered his administration to give 10,000 rubles, or about 115 euros, to an evacuee arriving in Russia.
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba Twitter denied allegations that Ukraine was planning an attack or sabotage against chemical plants in the Donbass. He described the allegations as Russian disinformation.
Ukraine: Separatists violate ceasefire
According to the Ukrainian military leadership, Russian-backed separatists would have violated the ceasefire 53 times between Friday and midnight on Friday. United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the Munich Security Conference that the artillery and grenade attacks in eastern Ukraine in recent days are a provocation by Russia to justify an attack on Ukraine.
This year’s annual security conference has focused on the situation in Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is scheduled to meet with U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris on Saturday. Russia, too, usually attends the annual conference, but will miss the event this year.