WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) – The US government is sticking to its course of urgent warnings in the Ukraine crisis and is defending itself against allegations that it is creating panic. “Only one country has more than 100,000 troops massed on the border with Ukraine. It’s not the United States. It’s Russia. That’s the trigger for the alarm,” said US President Joe Biden’s National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan , on Sunday the television channel CNN.
In the past 10 or so days, Russian troop build-up has accelerated and Russian forces have moved closer to the border with Ukraine, from where they could launch militia traction very quickly, Sullivan said. It is very likely “that there will be a major military action very soon”. Sullivan again warned that an invasion of Ukraine could begin at any time.
“Should there be a Russian military invasion of Ukraine, it will likely begin with a massive use of missiles and bombs,” Sullivan said. “These are never as precise as an army would like them to be, and we don’t even know how precise the Russian army would like them to be.” So innocent civilians could be killed regardless of their nationality. This would probably be followed by the deployment of ground troops moving across the Ukrainian border. Again, innocent civilians could be caught in the crossfire or trapped in places. That is why the US government is so urgently calling on American citizens to leave Ukraine.
In view of the deployment of tens of thousands of Russian soldiers on the border with Ukraine, there are fears that the Kremlin is planning an invasion of the neighboring country. Moscow denies that. The US government has nevertheless been warning of an imminent invasion for weeks with increasing drama. Sullivan said on Friday that the US considered a Russian invasion possible before the end of the Winter Olympics in China on February 20 – that is, in the coming days. The Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj was irritated by the alarming statements from Washington and warned: “The best friend for the enemy is panic in our country.”/jac/DP/he