Russia may attack Ukraine in the next few days, said US President Joe Biden. According to him, Moscow not only did not withdraw its troops from the border, but pulled in new soldiers and equipment. At the same time, the possibility of a provocation is not ruled out - conducting an "operation under a false flag," the politician added. Previously, Biden called the date of the invasion February 16 - it did not take place. The Kremlin believes that Washington is escalating the situation. US President Joe Biden reiterated that Russia is preparing to attack Ukraine. This is reported by ABC News.
"This [invasion] could happen within a few days," he replied to a reporter's question about the possibility of hostilities.
Biden added that the Russian command is pulling new forces to the Ukrainian border, despite statements about the withdrawal of units deep into the country.
“We have reason to believe that they [the Russian Federation] will carry out an operation under a false flag in order to have an excuse to enter [the territory of Ukraine],” the American leader stressed.
According to him, the likelihood of such a scenario is "very high", but there is still room for diplomacy.
Press Secretary of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov believes that the statements of US President Joe Biden escalate the situation.
“Unfortunately, such statements continue to escalate tension,” Peskov said.
Earlier, the Pentagon reported that Russian propagandists were filming a fake video of Ukrainian soldiers attacking Russia. According to Pentagon spokesman John Kirby, the video shows scenes of "a staged mock explosion with corpses, actors pretending to mourn, and images of destroyed locations and military equipment."
Politico previously reported that the Russian invasion of Ukraine would begin after February 20. The authors of the article noted that the Munich Security Conference should end on this day. It is attended by high-ranking US officials and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The article noted that if the Russian Federation attacks while the Ukrainian leader is outside the country, it will be "absolute humiliation", "geopolitical trolling that Putin loves."
The authors of the article also noted that every expert they interviewed called the statements of Russian officials about the peaceful resolution of the crisis a "trick". Allegedly, Putin "is using the extra time to prepare a pretext for an invasion."
According to Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, the situation is reminiscent of Balzaminov's Marriage by Alexander Ostrovsky: “They say some kind of comet or planid is coming! So scientists looked at the sky through a metroscope and calculated everything exactly according to the numbers: on what day and at what hour it will sit on the ground.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, in turn, said that he could not say whether the crisis around Ukraine would end after February 20. “I don’t know, it’s not us [the escalation] who arrange it,” he said.
US President Joe Biden has previously called February 16 a possible date for a Russian invasion. However, he acknowledged that the threat of "attack" is surmountable, and there is a chance to resolve everything through diplomacy.
bbabo.Net