- The U.S. now believes Russia will invade Ukraine ‘next week’
- Details emerged as President Biden briefed allies in a virtual meeting
- Antony Blinken has warned US citizens to leave Ukraine as quickly as possible
- Russia is still moving troops and an invasion could come ‘at any time’, he said
- Biden also urged Americans to leave, warning things ‘could go crazy quickly’
- US troops will not be sent to help, he said, because of the risk of a world war
U.S. officials believe Russian President Vladimir Putin has decided to invade Ukraine, U.S. President Joe Biden said in a recent phone call with NATO and EU leaders, reports The Guardian.
PBS first reported news of the imminent attack, with reporter Nick Schifrin tweeting that U.S. and Western officials anticipate a “horrific, bloody campaign” with two days of aerial bombardment and electronic warfare, followed by a ground assault with the possible goal of overthrowing the Kyiv government led by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters Friday that the PBS report “does not accurately capture what the US government’s view is today,” but did not issue a full-fledged denial.
“Our view is that we do not believe he has made any kind of final decision. or we don’t know that he has made any final decision and we have not communicated that to anybody,” he said.
Sullivan also urged Americans in Ukraine to leave “as soon as possible, and in any event in the next 24 to 48 hours.”
He also warned that there was no “prospect of a U.S. military evacuation in the event of a Russian invasion.”
“If a Russian attack on Ukraine procedes it is likely to begin with aerial bombing and missile attacks that could obviously kill civilians without regard to their nationality,” he said. “Subsequent ground invasion would involve the onslaught of a massive force … No one would be able to count on air or rail or road departures once military action got underway.”
“The risk is now high enough, and the threat is immediate enough, that prudence demands that it is the time to leave now, while commercial options and commercial rail and air service exist, and while the roads are open,” Sullivan added.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday said there were “very troubling signs of Russian escalation.”
“We’re in a window when an invasion could begin at any time — and to be clear, that includes during the Olympics,” Blinken said.
The Guardian report comes a day after French President Emmanuel Macron claimed he had received personal assurances from Putin that Russia would not worsen the crisis over Ukraine, though Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that information was “essentially wrong” and that a deal was “simply impossible.”
“France is the EU presidency, France is a member of NATO, where Paris does not have leadership. In this bloc, the leadership belongs to a completely different country. What kind of deals can we talk about?” Peskov said.
He also said Russia is not “sensing any real ways towards a solution” and warned that “de-escalation is really, really needed” because “tensions are rising day by day.”
Putin at the press conference with Macron said he wanted to “stress one more time” that if Ukraine joins NATO, “and attempts to bring Crimeas back by military means, the European countries will be automatically pulled into a war conflict with Russia?”
Russia has amassed some 135,000 troops backed by artillery and tanks on Ukraine’s borders.