“The Kremlin’s plans include undermining the situation inside Ukraine, fomenting hysteria and fear among Ukrainians, and the authorities in Kyiv find it increasingly difficult to contain this snowball,” said political analyst Volodymyr Fesenko. Moscow has accused Ukraine of massing troops near rebel-controlled regions to retake them by force - accusations Kyiv has rejected.Īnalysts say Ukraine’s leaders are caught between trying to calm the nation and ensuring it gets sufficient assistance from the West in case of an invasion. Some of these, like the membership pledge, are nonstarters for NATO, creating a seemingly intractable stalemate that many fear can only end in a war. In the latest standoff, Russia wants guarantees from the West that NATO will never admit Ukraine as a member and that the alliance would curtail other actions, such as stationing troops in former Soviet bloc countries. Fighting between Ukrainian forces and Russia-backed rebels has killed over 14,000 people, and efforts to reach a settlement have stalled. In 2014, following the ouster of a Kremlin-friendly president in Kyiv, Moscow annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and threw its weight behind a separatist insurgency in the country’s eastern industrial heartland.
Thousands of troops from Russia’s Southern and Western Military Districts took part Tuesday in readiness drills in those regions in maneuvers involving Iskander missiles and dozens of warplanes. Moscow has rejected Western demands to pull its troops back from areas near Ukraine, saying it will deploy and train them wherever necessary on its territory as a response to what it called “hostile” moves by the U.S. of “fomenting tensions” around Ukraine, a former Soviet state that has been in a conflict with Russia for almost eight years. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov again accused the U.S. Russia has said Western accusations it is planning an attack are merely a cover for NATO’s own planned provocations. In an interview late Monday, however, he acknowledged “risky scenarios” are possible. ”We are working together with our partners as a single team.”ĭefense Minister Oleksii Reznikov told parliament that “as of today, there are no grounds to believe” Russia will invade imminently, noting that its troops have not formed what he called a battle group to force its way over the border. The decision by the U.S., Britain, Australia, Germany and Canada to withdraw some of their diplomats and dependents from Kyiv “doesn’t necessarily signal an inevitable escalation and is part of a complex diplomatic game,” he said. “We are strong enough to keep everything under control and derail any attempts at destabilization,” he said. Speaking in the second televised speech to the nation in as many days, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged Ukrainians not to panic. Ukrainian authorities, however, have sought to project calm. Britain said it, too, was withdrawing some diplomats and dependents from its embassy, and families of Canadian diplomatic staff also have been told to leave. Embassy in Kyiv to leave the country, and it said that nonessential embassy staff could leave. State Department has ordered the families of all American personnel at the U.S. and its allies have threatened sanctions like never before if Moscow sends its military into Ukraine, but they have given few details, saying it’s best to keep Putin guessing. Scholz said he wanted “clear steps from Russia that will contribute to a de-escalation of the situation.” Macron, who said he would talk to Putin by phone Friday, added: “If there is aggression, there will be retaliation and the cost will be very high.” In a show of European unity in Berlin, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron called for an easing of the crisis. “We have no intention of putting American forces or NATO forces in Ukraine,” Biden said, adding that there would be serious economic consequences for Putin, including personal sanctions, in the event of an invasion.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson also said he is prepared to send troops to protect NATO allies in Europe. ordered 8,500 troops on higher alert for potential deployment to Europe as part of an alliance “response force” if necessary. NATO said it was bolstering its deterrence in the Baltic Sea region, and the U.S. Several rounds of high stakes diplomacy have failed to yield any breakthroughs, and tensions escalated further this week.