KYIV, Ukraine: Hundreds of artillery shells exploded along the line of contact between Ukrainian troops and Russia-backed separatists, and thousands were evacuated east. UkraineMore fears were mounting on Sunday that the volatile region could spark a Russian offensive.
Western leaders warned that Russia was ready to attack its neighbour, which is surrounded on three sides by about 150,000 Russian troops, warplanes and equipment. Russia on Saturday conducted nuclear drills in neighboring Belarus and continues its naval exercises off the coast in the Black Sea.
The United States and several European countries have for months accused Russia of trying to make up excuses to invade. He has threatened massive, immediate sanctions if this happens.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin To select a meeting place where the two leaders can meet so as to try to resolve the crisis.
“Ukraine will continue to follow only the diplomatic route to a peaceful solution,” Zelensky told the Munich Security Conference on Saturday. There was no immediate reaction from the Kremlin.
Zelensky spoke hours after separatist leaders in eastern Ukraine ordered a full military mobilization and sent more civilians to Russia, which has issued nearly 700,000 passports to residents of rebel-held areas. Claims that Russian civilians are being put in danger could be used as a justification for military action.
In new signs of fear that war could begin within days, Germany and Austria asked their citizens to leave Ukraine. German air carrier Lufthansa canceled flights to the capital, Kiev and Odessa, a Black Sea port that could be a prime target in an invasion.
NATO’s liaison office in Kiev said it was relocating staff to Brussels and the western Ukrainian city of Lviv.
“They are unilateral and are now ready to attack,” US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Saturday.
US President Joe Biden said late Friday that based on the latest US intelligence, he is now “convinced” that Putin has decided to invade Ukraine and attack the capital in the coming days.
A US military official said an estimated 40% to 50% of those ground forces have moved into assault positions close to the border. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal US assessments, said the change has been in place for about a week and does not mean Putin has settled on an invasion.
The lines of communication between Moscow and the West remain open: US and Russian defense chiefs spoke on Friday. French President Emmanuel Macron spoke to Putin on the phone on Sunday. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov agreed to meet next week.
Immediate concern focuses on eastern Ukraine, where Ukrainian forces have been fighting pro-Russian insurgents since 2014, killing some 14,000 people.
Ukraine and separatist leaders traded accusations of escalation. Russia said on Saturday that at least two shells fired from government-held parts of eastern Ukraine landed across the border, but Ukraine’s foreign minister dismissed that claim as “a fake statement”.
Top Ukrainian military officials were fired upon during a visit to the front of the nearly eight-year-old separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine. According to an Associated Press journalist who was on tour, officers fled to a bomb shelter before fleeing the area.
Elsewhere on the front lines, Ukrainian troops said they had been ordered not to return fire. poison leshunPeeking into the distance with a periscope, had followed the news all day from a ditch where he is stationed near the town of Xolot.
“Right now, we don’t respond to their fire because…” the soldier began to explain, before being interrupted by the sound of an oncoming shell. “Oh! They are shooting at us now. They are targeting the command post.
Sporadic violence has broken out for years along the line separating the Ukrainian military from Russia-backed separatists, but the spike seen in recent days is orders of magnitude greater than anything recently recorded by international monitors: Around 1,500 explosions were recorded in 24 hours.
EU Executive Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Russian access to financial markets and high-tech goods would be sharply limited under Western sanctions in the event of a Russian attack.
Von der Leyen said, “The dangerous thinking of the Kremlin, which emanates directly from a dark past, may pay the price for Russia’s prosperous future.”
Denis Pushilin, the head of a pro-Russian separatist government in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, cited an “immediate threat of aggression” from the Ukrainian military in his announcement of an arms call. Ukrainian officials have denied plans to forcibly occupy areas controlled by the rebels.
“I appeal to all men of the republic who can take up arms to protect their families, their children, wives, mothers,” said Pushilin. “Together we will achieve the coveted victory we all need.”
A similar statement was made by his counterpart in the Luhansk region. On Friday, rebels began evacuating civilians into Russia with an announcement that appears to be part of their and Moscow’s efforts to portray Ukraine as the aggressor.
Metadata from two videos by separatists announcing the evacuation of civilians in Russia shows the files were created two days ago, the AP confirmed. US officials have alleged that the Kremlin’s effort as a pretext for invasion may have included staged, pre-recorded videos.
Ukraine’s military said Saturday that two of its soldiers were killed in firing by the separatist side.
Authorities in Russia’s Rostov region, which borders eastern Ukraine, declared a state of emergency due to an influx of evacuees. Media reports described chaos in some of the camps assigned to accommodate them on Saturday. Reports said there were long lines of buses and hundreds of people waiting in the cold for hours, without food or access to bathrooms.
Putin ordered the Russian government to offer 10,000 rubles (about $130) for each withdrawal, the equivalent of about half of the average monthly salary in eastern Ukraine.
Ukraine’s separatist regions, like much of the country’s east, are majority Russian-speaking, and Putin on Tuesday repeated allegations of “genocide” there and explained the need to protect them.
One of the evicted, a Donetsk resident who identified himself as only VyacheslavBlamed the government of Ukraine for its plight.
“Let them calm down,” he said. “It’s our fault that we don’t want to speak Ukrainian, right?”
Western leaders warned that Russia was ready to attack its neighbour, which is surrounded on three sides by about 150,000 Russian troops, warplanes and equipment. Russia on Saturday conducted nuclear drills in neighboring Belarus and continues its naval exercises off the coast in the Black Sea.
The United States and several European countries have for months accused Russia of trying to make up excuses to invade. He has threatened massive, immediate sanctions if this happens.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin To select a meeting place where the two leaders can meet so as to try to resolve the crisis.
“Ukraine will continue to follow only the diplomatic route to a peaceful solution,” Zelensky told the Munich Security Conference on Saturday. There was no immediate reaction from the Kremlin.
Zelensky spoke hours after separatist leaders in eastern Ukraine ordered a full military mobilization and sent more civilians to Russia, which has issued nearly 700,000 passports to residents of rebel-held areas. Claims that Russian civilians are being put in danger could be used as a justification for military action.
In new signs of fear that war could begin within days, Germany and Austria asked their citizens to leave Ukraine. German air carrier Lufthansa canceled flights to the capital, Kiev and Odessa, a Black Sea port that could be a prime target in an invasion.
NATO’s liaison office in Kiev said it was relocating staff to Brussels and the western Ukrainian city of Lviv.
“They are unilateral and are now ready to attack,” US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Saturday.
US President Joe Biden said late Friday that based on the latest US intelligence, he is now “convinced” that Putin has decided to invade Ukraine and attack the capital in the coming days.
A US military official said an estimated 40% to 50% of those ground forces have moved into assault positions close to the border. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal US assessments, said the change has been in place for about a week and does not mean Putin has settled on an invasion.
The lines of communication between Moscow and the West remain open: US and Russian defense chiefs spoke on Friday. French President Emmanuel Macron spoke to Putin on the phone on Sunday. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov agreed to meet next week.
Immediate concern focuses on eastern Ukraine, where Ukrainian forces have been fighting pro-Russian insurgents since 2014, killing some 14,000 people.
Ukraine and separatist leaders traded accusations of escalation. Russia said on Saturday that at least two shells fired from government-held parts of eastern Ukraine landed across the border, but Ukraine’s foreign minister dismissed that claim as “a fake statement”.
Top Ukrainian military officials were fired upon during a visit to the front of the nearly eight-year-old separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine. According to an Associated Press journalist who was on tour, officers fled to a bomb shelter before fleeing the area.
Elsewhere on the front lines, Ukrainian troops said they had been ordered not to return fire. poison leshunPeeking into the distance with a periscope, had followed the news all day from a ditch where he is stationed near the town of Xolot.
“Right now, we don’t respond to their fire because…” the soldier began to explain, before being interrupted by the sound of an oncoming shell. “Oh! They are shooting at us now. They are targeting the command post.
Sporadic violence has broken out for years along the line separating the Ukrainian military from Russia-backed separatists, but the spike seen in recent days is orders of magnitude greater than anything recently recorded by international monitors: Around 1,500 explosions were recorded in 24 hours.
EU Executive Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Russian access to financial markets and high-tech goods would be sharply limited under Western sanctions in the event of a Russian attack.
Von der Leyen said, “The dangerous thinking of the Kremlin, which emanates directly from a dark past, may pay the price for Russia’s prosperous future.”
Denis Pushilin, the head of a pro-Russian separatist government in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, cited an “immediate threat of aggression” from the Ukrainian military in his announcement of an arms call. Ukrainian officials have denied plans to forcibly occupy areas controlled by the rebels.
“I appeal to all men of the republic who can take up arms to protect their families, their children, wives, mothers,” said Pushilin. “Together we will achieve the coveted victory we all need.”
A similar statement was made by his counterpart in the Luhansk region. On Friday, rebels began evacuating civilians into Russia with an announcement that appears to be part of their and Moscow’s efforts to portray Ukraine as the aggressor.
Metadata from two videos by separatists announcing the evacuation of civilians in Russia shows the files were created two days ago, the AP confirmed. US officials have alleged that the Kremlin’s effort as a pretext for invasion may have included staged, pre-recorded videos.
Ukraine’s military said Saturday that two of its soldiers were killed in firing by the separatist side.
Authorities in Russia’s Rostov region, which borders eastern Ukraine, declared a state of emergency due to an influx of evacuees. Media reports described chaos in some of the camps assigned to accommodate them on Saturday. Reports said there were long lines of buses and hundreds of people waiting in the cold for hours, without food or access to bathrooms.
Putin ordered the Russian government to offer 10,000 rubles (about $130) for each withdrawal, the equivalent of about half of the average monthly salary in eastern Ukraine.
Ukraine’s separatist regions, like much of the country’s east, are majority Russian-speaking, and Putin on Tuesday repeated allegations of “genocide” there and explained the need to protect them.
One of the evicted, a Donetsk resident who identified himself as only VyacheslavBlamed the government of Ukraine for its plight.
“Let them calm down,” he said. “It’s our fault that we don’t want to speak Ukrainian, right?”
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