The United States continues to warn that Russia could invade Ukraine “any day” amid escalating tensions in the region, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken telling ABC News on Wednesday that the U.S. has seen “no meaningful pullback” of Russian forces.
More than 150,000 Russian troops are estimated to be massed near Ukraine’s borders, U.S. President Joe Biden said Tuesday, as U.S. officials have urged all Americans to immediately leave Ukraine.
While Russian President Vladimir Putin Putin and the Kremlin claim that Russia has started to withdraw some troops from near Ukraine’s borders, ABC News learned that Putin had told his military forces to be ready to invade by Wednesday. It remains unclear whether he has made a decision to attack his ex-Soviet neighbor. Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy marked that date as an impromptu national holiday, “a day of unity.”
Russia has denied it plans to invade and has demanded the U.S. and NATO bar Ukraine from joining the military alliance.
In the same vein, Russia will soon formally respond to the written answers that the United States sent earlier to Moscow’s demands for security guarantees that NATO not enlarge, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Thursday.
The U.S. government, at Russia’s insistence, sent written responses to two draft treaties the Kremlin published demanding guarantees that Ukraine will never join NATO and that the military alliance pull back its infrastructure from Eastern European countries that joined after the Cold War. Washington rejected those guarantees as non-starters but offered to discuss some confidence-building measures.
Lavrov was quoted by Russian state media on Thursday as saying that Moscow is planning to send its formal response “today” and that it will be published “several hours after.”
However, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko told reporters Moscow was “still working on” its response and that the reply would not be sent Thursday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said his government will continue to insist on discussing its key demands alongside any of the other issues.
Abc
