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.
“The laws that the country agreed upon decades ago are no longer valid,” Zelenskiy said. “They do not respond to new threats … This is a cough syrup when you need a coronavirus vaccine.”
World Bank President David Malpass told Zelenskiy on Saturday that the bank was studying for $ 350 million in Ukraine funding.
Hypersonic and cruise missile
The Kremlin said Russia had successfully tested hypersonic missiles and cruises at sea during nuclear drilling. Putin watched the tests on screen with Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko at the “state center”.
In his clear prediction so far, Biden said on Friday he was confident Putin had decided to invade Ukraine in the coming days, while Austin said on Saturday that nuclear military tests were raising concerns around the world.
“President Biden continues to monitor the situation in Ukraine, and is regularly updated on developments in the world by his security team,” White House News Secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement. “They also confirm that Russia can invade Ukraine at any time.”
G7 foreign ministers have called on Russia to opt for negotiations. “As a first step, we expect Russia to implement the announced reduction of its military operations on the Ukrainian border. We have not seen any evidence of this reduction,” they said in a statement.
Zelenskiy said he had had an “urgent” telephone conversation with French President Emmanuel Macron and discussed ways that could lead to a slowdown in the economy and a solution to political problems. Macron is expected to speak to Putin on Sunday.
These nuclear weapons tests follow the Russian military’s lead in the past four months, which includes an influx of troops – an estimated 150,000 or more from Western countries – in the north, east, and south of Ukraine.
New helicopters and the deployment of tank troops, armor and support equipment have been transferred to Russia near the border, according to US Maxar Technologies, which is tracking progress with satellite imagery.
Analysts based in Moscow say Saturday’s tests were intended to send a message that Russia’s interests were taken seriously.
“The disregard for Russia’s legal rights in the region seriously undermines stability not only on the European continent, but also globally,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was quoted as saying by his department in a statement.
A NATO official said the coalition had relocated workers from Kyiv to the western city of Lviv and Brussels for security reasons. The United States and other countries have moved to Lviv.
Shelling’s allegations
Russian-backed rebels occupied the eastern region of Ukraine and Russia annexed Crimea in Ukraine in 2014. Kyiv says more than 14,000 people have been killed in the eastern war.
Various leaders in eastern Ukraine have announced they will fully recruit troops after ordering women and children to move to Russia, citing the threat of an attack by Ukrainian troops, which Kyiv has denied.
Leaders of Kyiv and the West say that mobilization, evictions and bombings are part of Russia’s plan to create an excuse for attacks.
Russia’s FSB security agency says two shells fell on a Russian site near the border, Russian media reported Tass.
Ukrainian troops have accused Russia of forgery a series of shells to prove that they are Ukrainian, and that troops have arrived in eastern Ukraine deported separately to provoke cooperation with Russian special forces.
Ukraine’s foreign minister has called for an independent international inquiry into the allegations and the military says two soldiers were killed during a shootout with Russian supporters in eastern Ukraine.
The two Russian-backed, self-proclaimed republics in Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk regions were hit by more than 1,400 explosions on Friday, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said. And almost 2,000 ceasefire violations were registered in the area by OSCE monitors on Saturday, a diplomatic source told Reuters.
Multiple explosions were heard overnight into Sunday in the centre of the separatist-controlled city of Donetsk, a Reuters reporter said. The blasts’ origin was not clear. There was no immediate comment from separatist authorities or Kyiv.
“It’s really scary. I’ve taken everything I could carry,” said Tatyana, 30, who was boarding a bus with her 4-year-old daughter.
Russian news agencies said 10,000 evacuees had arrived in Russia. Separatist leaders say they aim to evacuate 700,000 people.Russian news agencies said 10,000 evacuees had arrived in Russia. Separatist leaders say they aim to evacuate 700,000 people.