With tensions between Russia and Ukraine escalating and more than 100,000 Russian troops piling up on the neighboring country’s border, the US and other Western powers have been issuing warnings that an invasion is imminent.
White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told US media on Sunday that the offensive could take place later this week, likely with heavy missile attacks and bombings. followed by ground troop movements.
Vladimir Putin’s government, for its part, denies having any intention of starting a war and attributes the American warnings to pressure from President Joe Biden “to provoke hysteria”.
The Kremlin says it can take “military action” if the West does not accept security guarantees, including a promise that Ukraine will never join the bloc’s military alliance – a proposal the US considers unacceptable.
This Sunday, the American newspaper The New York Times drew a map, with information from Rochan Consulting, with the points where there are troops, tanks and heavy artillery moving to positions that threaten Ukraine. The American newspaper attributes the information to Ukrainian and Western officials, independent military analysts and satellite imagery.
The map also provides estimates of the size of the military contingent at each location, represented by the size of the circles around the points for which this information is available.
Russian forces, which had been deployed to Ukraine’s eastern and southern borders, recently opened a new front on the northern border, in the territory of its ally Belarus, raising fears of a land invasion in the region closest to the capital, Kiev. . Moscow attributes the deployment to joint military exercises, which began on Thursday (10) and are expected to last ten days.
The New York Times also claims that the Kremlin has placed a powerful air defense system near the Ukraine-Belarus border.
The Ukrainian government has said the Americans’ warnings are alarmist. President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday that he considered “a big mistake” the decision of some Western countries, including the US and Canada, to move their embassies from Kiev to another city in western Ukraine.
During a joint press conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Zelensky also stated that NATO membership would guarantee his country’s survival. “We believe that joining NATO would guarantee our security and our territorial integrity,” she told reporters.
