Russia has the troops in place to invade Ukraine “at any time” and American citizens should leave within the next 48 hours, the US has warned.
An invasion could start with aerial bombing that would make departures difficult and endanger civilians, the White House said on Friday.
A host of other countries have also urged their nationals to leave Ukraine.
Russia has repeatedly denied any plans to invade Ukraine despite massing more than 100,000 troops near the border.
Has the Cold War returned with a vengeance? Some expert commentators seem to think so. Russia’s mobilization of over 100,000 troops near Ukraine’s borders this winter has led the United States and some allied NATO countries to threaten economic and political sanctions, including those specifically against the Kremlin’s leadership. Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and destabilization of eastern Ukraine since then has created uncertainty as to how far President Vladimir Putin might be willing to go, either in the way of scaled-up political pressure backed by military power, or in the worst extreme, an actual large-scale invasion with ambitious objectives, including possible regime change in Kiev. Several prognosticators and some Russian officials also assume that, should Russia decide to initiate a major military operation against Ukraine, the result would be a veritable walkover, with Ukrainian forces unable to offer more than a feeble and temporary resistance against overwhelming Russian combined ground, air, and naval forces.
Welcome to the age of minilateralism.
Irrespective of whether Europe emerges from its current crisis without a war, it will almost certainly emerge battered and with alliances shaken. Regional ties that had been cultivated since World War II and that had already started to fray have been largely upended by Russia’s renewed menacing of the European security order.
Like the bankruptcy in Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, the change has happened “Gradually, then suddenly.” The age of a united and multilateral West may be over, with the age of minilateralism beginning.
This week, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Foreign Minister Wobke Hoekstra (no relation) met with Ukrainian leaders in Kiev. The visit was intended to signal Dutch support to the government of Ukraine in the face of Russian build-up provocations on its border. As with other European national security moves, the meeting may be too little too late.
It was a positive step, strongly supported by the Biden Administration as a sign of NATO unity. The visit, however, recalled efforts — such as the one below — by U.S. and European ambassadors to stop Nord Stream 2, the pipeline from Russia to Germany that then connects to much of the rest of Europe. The Russian threat outlined by the Trump administration was very clear — that Russia would then be able to shut off its gas to Europe in the middle of winter, if it chose to, as a form of blackmail, at which point the US might then be expected to save Europe from its own deal — and the long-term policy and security consequences of completing the pipeline were communicated. Put very simply, building closer economic ties with Russia and Putin is an extremely bad and dangerous idea.
Germany will get its Russian gas. NATO is a paper tiger. Time the US ended Europe’s free ride but Biden won’t do it.
The “war” with Russia is as real as Russiagate.
Biden tried to be FDR and failed at that. Now he’s settling for playing a senile elderly JFK.
If you watch 5 minutes of CNN or any cable news network, you might believe that we’re on the verge of war with Russia. That’s what the same people who claimed that President Trump was working for Putin want you to believe. Their new war with Russia is as real as Russiagate.
China’s Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin of Russia have signed a joint statement calling on the west to “abandon the ideologised approaches of the cold war”, as the two leaders showcased their warming relationship amid a tense standoff with the west before the Beijing Winter Olympics.
In the joint statement released by the Kremlin, Putin and Xi called on Nato to rule out expansion in eastern Europe, denounced the formation of security blocs in the Asia Pacific region, and criticised the Aukus trilateral security pact between the US, UK and Australia.
The two leaders met for the 38th time since 2013. The two countries also pledged to step up cooperation to thwart “colour revolutions” and external interference, and vowed to further deepen “back-to-back” strategic coordination.
Withheld from public for five years, memo conflicts with Democrats’ official narrative that president’s son had no impact on U.S. anti-corruption efforts in Ukraine.
As the war of words between the US and Russia grows louder over Ukraine, one major player on the international stage has spoken up firmly as well: China.
In recent days, Beijing has called for calm on both sides and the end of a Cold War mentality, while also making it clear it supports Moscow’s concerns.
It would seem obvious that China would side with its longtime ally and former Communist comrade Russia. But how and why it is doing this goes deeper than their history.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. accused the Kremlin on Thursday of an elaborate plot to fabricate an attack by Ukrainian forces that Russia could use as a pretext to take military action against its neighbor.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the scheme included production of a graphic propaganda video that would show staged explosions and use corpses and actors depicting grieving mourners.
The plan for the fake attack on Russian territory or Russian-speaking people was revealed in declassified intelligence shared with Ukrainian officials and European allies in recent days. It is the latest allegation by the U.S. and Britain that Russia is plotting to use a false pretext to go to war against Ukraine.
It’s past time for the continent to step up and take charge of its own defense
While American and Russian officials are yelling at one another in the UN Security Council chamber, another international actor has found itself at the little kid’s table: Europe.
It’s possible the phrase “little kid’s table” is too harsh. To be fair, French President Emmanuel Macron is at least in direct communication with Russian President Vladimir Putin and urging his European colleagues to formulate a joint European negotiating position on the Ukraine question. France is also a chief mediator of the Normandy Format, which seeks to resolve the eight-year conflict in Ukraine’s Donbas region.
Members of Parliament exchanged their concerns and ideas about how to support Ukraine during a special debate at the House Commons that ran for more than two hours Monday evening.
The discussion was part of a “take note” debate about the situation in Ukraine, a format that allows MPs to address national issues in a more wide-ranging, detailed fashion when compared to typical debates on specific legislation.
A shock and awe campaign could overwhelm Eastern Europe
A couple of weeks ago, in a biting sleet wind, I visited the graveyard of the tiny village of Bohoniki in Poland’s far north east, home to Poland’s minuscule Tatar Muslim minority, descendents of the Mongol Golden Horde. On the graveyard hillock beneath the swaying pine trees, below gilded crescent moons and Arabic calligraphy, the names on the headstones — Miroslawa Safarewicz, Ali Bogdanowicz, Aleksander Sulkiewicz — spoke of centuries of Tatar assimilation since their arrival on horseback in Poland in the Middle Ages.
By the time you read this article, Russian troops may have entered Ukraine or even captured its capital Kiev in a blitzkrieg that would have made Field Marshal von Paulus green with envy. Or, maybe you would witness nothing but more sabre rattling by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The two contrasting possibilities, even if one is closer to a probability, illustrate the fact that no one knows what Putin, the consummate poker player keeping his cards close to his chest, has in mind.
At the risk of ending up with egg on my face, I belong to the group who think there would be no full-scale invasion. To back that assertion one could cite three reasons.
Canada is pulling non-essential staff from the Canadian embassy in Ukraine as concerns continue to mount over the threat of a Russian incursion.
In a statement on Sunday, Global Affairs Canada said it was temporarily withdrawing non-essential Canadian employees and remaining dependants from the embassy in Kyiv.
The frontlines of Eastern Ukraine are snow-laden and the big guns are largely silent. But snipers are bedded into this winter white wasteland. Ukrainian troops who forget to stay low in their World War One-style trenches risk a bullet to the head.
The conflict here has been frozen in place since 2014, when separatists, backed by Moscow, seized parts of the Donbas region. At least 13,000 people have been killed, both combatants and civilians. Now Western leaders are warning of something much worse – a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. If it comes, the eastern front would be an easy place to start, with the pro-Russian rebels here paving the way.
