Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Joe Biden are to hold a high-stakes telephone call on Saturday as tensions over a possibly imminent invasion of Ukraine escalated sharply the day before.
Before talking to Biden, Putin is also to have a call with French President Emmanuel Macron. The two met in Moscow earlier in the week to try to resolve the crisis.
Russia has massed troops near the Ukraine border and sent troops to neighbouring Belarus for joint exercises. Still, the Kremlin insistently denies that it intends to launch an offensive against Kyiv.
Adding to the sense of crisis, the Pentagon ordered an additional 3,000 US troops to Poland to reassure allies.
Biden has said the US military would not enter a war in Ukraine, but he has promised severe economic sanctions against Moscow in concert with international allies.
Countries urge citizens to leave as tensions increase
The timing of any possible Russian military action remains a crucial question.
According to a US official familiar with the findings, the US acquired intelligence that Russia is looking at Wednesday as a target date.
The official, who was not authorized to speak publicly and did so only on condition of anonymity, would not say how definitive the intelligence was, and the White House publicly underscored that the US does not know with certainty whether Putin is committed to invasion.
However, US officials said anew that Russia’s buildup of offensive air, land and sea firepower near Ukraine had reached the point where it could invade on short notice.
Earlier, the US State Department ordered families of US embassy staffers in Kyiv to leave. Still, it had left it to the discretion of nonessential personnel if they wanted to depart.
The White House also urged all US citizens in Ukraine to leave, emphasizing that they should not expect the US military to rescue them if air and rail transportation were severed after a Russian invasion.
Several countries, including the UK, Canada, Norway and Israel, also asked their citizens to leave Ukraine.
Meanwhile, the Russian embassy in Ukraine has reduced its diplomatic staff out of fear of “provocations by the Kyiv regime or third countries,” its Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed on Saturday morning.
Some believe that the move was decided upon to incite further panic among Ukrainians and the country’s Western allies.
Russia dismisses US fears of imminent invasion
Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said Russian military action could start with missile and air attacks, followed by a ground offensive.
“Yes, it is an urgent message because we are in an urgent situation,” he told reporters at the White House.
“Russia has all the forces it needs to conduct a major military action,” Sullivan said, adding, “Russia could choose, in very short order, to commence a major military action against Ukraine.” He said the scale of such an invasion could range from a limited incursion to a strike on Kyiv.
Russia scoffed at the talk of urgency.
“The hysteria of the White House is more indicative than ever,” said Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. “The Anglo-Saxons need a war. At any cost. Provocations, misinformation and threats are a favorite method of solving their own problems.”
In addition to the more than 100,000 ground troops that US officials say Russia has assembled along Ukraine’s eastern and southern borders, the Russians have deployed missile, air, naval and special operations forces, as well as supplies to sustain a war.
This week Russia moved six amphibious assault ships into the Black Sea, augmenting its capability to land marines on the coast.
Sullivan’s stark warning accelerated the projected timeframe for a potential invasion, which many analysts had believed was unlikely until after the Winter Olympics in China end on 20 February.
Sullivan said the combination of a further Russian troop buildup on Ukraine’s borders and unspecified intelligence indicators had prompted the administration to warn that war could begin any time.
“We can’t pinpoint the day at this point, and we can’t pinpoint the hour, but that is a very, very distinct possibility,” Sullivan said.
More US troops sent to NATO’s eastern edge
Biden has said US troops will not enter Ukraine to contest any Russian invasion. Yet, he has bolstered the country’s military presence in Europe as reassurance to allies on NATO’s eastern flank.
On Friday, the Pentagon said Biden ordered a further 3,000 soldiers to Poland, on top of 1,700 who are on their way there. The US Army is also shifting 1,000 soldiers from Germany to Romania, which like Poland shares a border with Ukraine.
Biden spoke to several European leaders on Friday to underscore the most recent concerns. Sullivan said the Western leaders were completely united and would respond harshly to a Russian invasion with devastating economic and trade sanctions.
Russia demands that the West keep Ukraine and other former Soviet countries out of NATO. It also wants NATO to refrain from deploying weapons near its border and roll back alliance forces from Eastern Europe — demands flatly rejected by the West.
Russia and Ukraine have been locked in a bitter conflict since 2014, when Ukraine’s Kremlin-friendly leader was driven from office by the Maidan uprising.
Moscow responded by annexing Crimea and then backing a separatist insurgency in the region of Donbas in eastern Ukraine, where fighting has killed over 14,000 people.
A 2015 peace deal brokered by France and Germany helped halt large-scale battles, but regular skirmishes have continued, and efforts to reach a political settlement have stalled.
