A Russian invasion of Ukraine could “happen at any time,” including before the end of the Beijing Olympics scheduled for February 20, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Friday.
“We continue to see signs of Russian escalation, including the arrival of new forces on the border with Ukraine,” he told reporters.
(Also: The British government asks its citizens to leave Ukraine as soon as possible)
However, Washington “is not saying” that Russian President Vladimir Putin has already made the decision to invade, he added.
“An invasion could happen at any time if Vladimir Putin decides to order it,” he said. “It could start during the Olympics, although there is much speculation that it will only happen after the Games.”
(In context: Russia and Belarus begin military exercises with tensions over Ukraine)
The way he has amassed his forces and positioned them in place… makes it clear to us that there is a very distinct possibility that Russia will choose to act militarily.
Washington considers that there is a “very clear possibility” that Russia invades Ukraine, but does not know if the Russian leader made the “final decision”, Sullivan said.
“The way he has amassed his forces and positioned them in place … makes it clear to us that there is a very distinct possibility that Russia will choose to act militarily,” the official told reporters at the White House.
“Our view is that we don’t believe that he has made any final decision, or we don’t know that he has made one,” he weighed.
The White House said on Friday that a potential imminent Russian attack on Ukraine could begin with “air strikes and missile strikes that would obviously kill civilians.”
Against this backdrop, he urged US citizens to leave Ukraine “in the next 24 to 48 hours.”
(What’s more: Hopes arise for a de-escalation in Ukraine after diplomatic efforts)
The threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine has served, in parallel, to unify the NATO alliance. “NATO has grown stronger. The Alliance is more cohesive, more determined and more dynamic than at any time in recent memory,” Sullivan told the briefing.
Russia has called for NATO to withdraw from Eastern Europe to de-escalate the conflict, which the West refuses.
Tensions between Washington and Moscow are at their highest peak since the Cold War. The United States says that some 130,000 Russian soldiers are grouped in dozens of combat brigades near the border with Ukraine, leading Western countries to fear that it is preparing an invasion. For its part, the Kremlin denies these accusations and defends its right to place troops on its territory as it deems necessary.
AFP
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