Russian nuclear forces conducted tests conducted by President Vladimir Putin on Saturday, and Washington accused Russian troops gathered near the Ukrainian border of continuing to be “determined to strike”.
As Western fears about the war intensify, the White House said U.S. President Joe Biden’s security team had told him he still believed Russia could invade Ukraine “at any time” and planned to call his top advisers on Sunday to discuss the issue.
Foreign ministers of the G7 group of rich countries say they see no evidence that Russia is reducing its military activity in the region and are still very concerned about the situation.
After Kyiv and Moscow traded in the alleged bombings near the border, France and Germany urged all or some of its Ukrainian citizens to leave. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said Russian troops were beginning to “disintegrate and move closer” to the border.
“We hope that (Putin) will come back to the brink of conflict,” Austin told a news conference in Lithuania, saying Ukraine’s invasion was inevitable.
Russia has ordered the deployment of troops as it seeks NATO to prevent Ukraine from joining the alliance but says Western warnings that it plans to invade Ukraine are bizarre and dangerous. Moscow says it is retreating, but Washington and its partners say construction is on the rise.
Washington and NATO say Moscow’s biggest demands are not new, but in Ukraine fears are mounting over Putin’s plans.
Expressing his frustration at a security conference in Munich, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the security building around the world was “almost broken”. He appealed to the entire U.N. Security Council, Germany and Turkey to meet to make new security guarantees for his country.