• Russia says diplomatic possibilities ‘far from exhausted’
• US relocating embassy in Kyiv to Lviv in western Ukraine
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said yesterday he had heard that Wednesday could be the day of a Russian invasion, and would proclaim it a day of Ukrainian national unity instead.
Zelenskiy, who has tended to play down suggestions that an attack is imminent, did not say who had suggested the date of February 16. However, several US news organisations reported last week that Washington believed that was the date when Russian forces would be ready if Putin gives the order to invade.
“They tell us February 16 will be the day of the attack. We will make it a day of unity,” he said in a video address to the nation. “They are trying to frighten us by yet again naming a date for the start of military action.”
An order had been signed to hang out national flags and wear yellow and blue banners on that day, he added.
Russia suggested yesterday that it was ready to keep talking to the West to try to defuse the security crisis, while the United States said Moscow was adding to its military capabilities by the day for a potential attack on Ukraine.
Russia has more than 100,000 troops massed near the border of Ukraine. It denies Western accusations that it is planning an invasion, but says it could take unspecified “military-technical” action unless a range of demands are met, including barring Kyiv from ever joining the Nato alliance.
In a televised exchange, President Vladimir Putin was shown asking his foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, whether there was a chance of an agreement to address Russia’s security concerns, or whether it was just being dragged into tortuous negotiations. Lavrov replied: “We have already warned more than once that we will not allow endless negotiations on questions that demand a solution today.”
But he added: “It seems to me that our possibilities are far from exhausted... At this stage, I would suggest continuing and building them up.”
The United States said yesterday it does not believe Putin has made a “final decision” on whether to invade Ukraine but he “could move with little or no warning.” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby also told reporters that US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin plans to leave for Europe today. Austin will hold meetings at Nato headquarters in Brussels and visit Poland and Lithuania, he said.
Addressing a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine, Kirby said “we still don’t believe that some final decision has been made.” “Military action could happen any day,” he added. “It is entirely possible that he could move with little to no warning.”
State Department spokesman Ned Price said meanwhile that the United States has seen “no tangible sign of de-escalation” at the Russia-Ukraine border.
“We believe that diplomacy continues to be viable,” Price said.
“We believe that there still remains a window to resolve this through dialogue and diplomacy,” he told reporters.
The US said yesterday it is relocating its embassy in Kyiv to the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, citing a “dramatic acceleration” in the buildup of Russian forces at the country’s border.
“We are in the process of temporarily relocating our embassy operations in Ukraine from our embassy in Kyiv to Lviv due to the dramatic acceleration in the buildup of Russian forces,” Blinken said in a statement.
“The embassy will remain engaged with the Ukrainian government, co-ordinating diplomatic engagement in Ukraine,” he said. “We are also continuing our intensive diplomatic efforts to deescalate the crisis,” he said.
Blinken “strongly urged” any remaining US citizens in Ukraine to leave the country immediately. At the Pentagon, Kirby separately called out China over its “tacit support” for Moscow in the Ukrainian standoff.
“Their tacit support, if you will, for Russia is deeply alarming and frankly even more destabilising to the security situation in Europe,” he said
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres spoke separately yesterday with the foreign ministers of Russia and Ukraine, and still believed “from his own analysis, his own hopes” that there would not be a conflict, a UN spokesperson said.
