The Kremlin says Russia has test-fired cruise and hypersonic missiles at sea during nuclear drills.
Donetsk / Moscow:
Russia’s strategic nuclear forces held exercises under the supervision of President Vladimir Putin on Saturday, and Washington accused Russian troops concentrated near the Ukrainian border of advancing and “ready to attack. labour”.
With Western fears of war growing, the White House said US President Joe Biden’s national security team told him it still believes Russia could launch an attack in Ukraine “at any time.” ” and he plans to convene his top advisers on Sunday to discuss the crisis.
The foreign ministers of the G7 Group of Wealthy Nations said they saw no evidence that Russia was reducing its military activity in the region and remained “deeply concerned” about the situation.
After Kyiv and Moscow made accusations of fresh shelling near the border, France and Germany urged all or some of their citizens in Ukraine to leave. US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Russian forces were beginning to “expand and move closer” to the border.
“We hope he (Putin) steps back from the brink of conflict,” Austin told a news conference in Lithuania, saying an invasion of Ukraine was not inevitable.
Russia has ordered a military buildup while asking NATO to prevent Ukraine from joining the alliance but says Western warnings that it is planning an invasion of Ukraine are crazy and dangerous. Moscow says it is pulling back, but Washington and its allies say the buildup is growing.
Washington and NATO argue that Moscow’s key demands are off-putting, but in Ukraine, concern is growing about Putin’s plans.
Venting his frustration at a security conference in Munich, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the global security architecture was “almost broken”. He called on the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, Germany and Turkey to meet to come up with new security guarantees for their countries.
“The rules that the world agreed on decades ago no longer work,” says Zelenskiy. “They’re not keeping up with new threats… Here’s cough syrup for when you need a coronavirus vaccine.”
World Bank President David Malpass told Zelenskiy on Saturday that the bank is ready to finance Ukraine up to $350 million.
Supersonic and cruise missiles
The Kremlin says Russia has successfully test-fired cruise and hypersonic missiles at sea during a nuclear force exercise. Putin watches on-screen drills with Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko from a “situational center”.
In his clearest prediction to date, Biden said Friday that he believes Putin has made the decision to invade Ukraine in the coming days, and Austin said Saturday that force exercises Nuclear power is causing concern all over the world.
“President Biden continues to monitor the evolving situation in Ukraine and is regularly updated by his national security team on events on the ground,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement. Father. “They reaffirmed that Russia can launch an attack against Ukraine at any time.”
The G7 foreign ministers called on Russia to choose a diplomatic path. They said in a statement: “As a first step, we expect Russia to implement the announced reductions in military activities along the Ukrainian border. We have seen no evidence of reductions. this”.
Zelenskiy said he had an “urgent” phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron and discussed possible ways of immediate de-escalation and political-diplomatic settlement. Macron will speak to Putin on Sunday.
The nuclear drills follow exercises by Russia’s armed forces over the past four months, involving a contingent of troops – 150,000 or more by Western estimates – in northern, eastern and southern Ukraine. .
New helicopters and a battle group deploying tanks, armored personnel carriers and support equipment have been delivered to locations near Russia’s borders, according to US-based Maxar Technologies, which tracks the event. by satellite images.
Moscow-based analysts said Saturday’s drills were intended to send a message to take Russia’s demands seriously.
“The neglect of Russia’s legal rights in this region adversely affects stability not only in continental Europe but also in the world,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was quoted as saying by the ministry. France by phone.
A NATO official said the alliance had moved staff from Kyiv to the western city of Lviv and to Brussels for safety reasons. The United States and other countries have moved diplomats to Lviv.
Allegations of shelling
Russian-backed rebels have seized swathes of eastern Ukraine and Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. Kyiv says more than 14,000 people have been killed in the conflict in the east.
Separatist leaders in eastern Ukraine have announced the full mobilization of their troops after ordering the evacuation of women and children to Russia, citing threats of an imminent attack by forces. Ukraine, which Kyiv denies.
Kyiv and Western leaders see mobilization, evacuation and increased artillery as part of a Russian plan to create a pretext for an invasion.
Russia’s FSB security service said two projectiles landed in Russian territory near the border, Russia’s Tass news agency reported.
Ukraine’s military accuses Russia of faking images of bullet casings to make them Ukrainian, and says mercenaries have traveled to separatist-controlled eastern Ukraine to carry out coordinated provocations. of Russian special forces.
Ukraine’s foreign minister has demanded an independent international investigation into the alleged incidents and the military said two soldiers were killed in shelling by pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said that the two self-proclaimed Russian-backed republics in Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk regions suffered more than 1,400 explosions on Friday. And nearly 2,000 ceasefire violations were registered in the area by OSCE monitors on Saturday, a diplomatic source told Reuters news agency.
Multiple explosions were heard between night and Sunday in the separatist-controlled city of Donetsk, a Reuters reporter said. The origin of the explosion is unclear. There was no immediate comment from the separatist or Kyiv authorities.
“It was really scary. I took everything I could bring,” 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.
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from an aggregated feed.)
