As part of its “large-scale disinformation campaign,” Russia accused the West and the media of circulating false information about a probable Russian invasion of Ukraine in order to “divert attention from their own aggressive acts.”
US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin are slated to speak Saturday, and a statement from Russia’s Foreign Ministry comes only hours before that call.
On Friday, Russia’s foreign ministry warned that “the global information sphere faced a media campaign unmatched in its magnitude and sophistication” aimed at convincing the international community that Russia is planning an invasion of Ukraine’s land.
It is possible that Russian bombs and missiles may be used in the near future in Ukraine, according to US national security adviser Jake Sullivan. To ensure their own safety, Sullivan encouraged all Americans to leave the country as soon as possible, a recommendation shared by a rising number of embassies.
Russian military intervention in Ukraine could be imminent, according to Sullivan, even if it isn’t obvious whether Putin has made the decision to do so.
MORE: Why have tensions between Russia and Ukraine resurfaced?
While Russia has consistently denied that it intends to attack, the Kremlin has said that NATO’s assistance for Ukraine, including expanded shipments of weapons and military training, poses an increasing threat to Russia’s western flank.
Later in the day on Friday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated that the United States continues to “saw very concerning indicators of Russian escalation, including fresh military coming at the Ukrainian border.”
According to an administration official, the United States estimates that Russia has more than 100,000 troops on the Ukrainian border, with thousands more recruited just this week.
US-based Maxar revealed new satellite pictures on Thursday that appeared to show Russia’s military buildup in Crimea, Russia’s western region, and Belarus.
As Russia and Belarus launched joint military exercises, Ukrainian intelligence officers expressed their fear that Russia could utilize Belarus as “a full-fledged theater of operations,” according to the photographs released on the same day. There are now an estimated 30,000 Russian troops in Belarus, up from several thousand in January.
“Critical and social infrastructure facilities” would be protected in the case of “a probable emergency” in the Ukrainian city of Kyiv, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said Friday.
On Telegram, Klitschko said, “Our efforts are targeted at both the prevention or the defeat of possible provocations and the resistance to a military invasion.
More than 500 storage facilities and over 4,500 “dual-use structures” across the city are available as civil protection services, he added, adding that additional energy and fuel reserves for “a period of up to 10 days” were also part of those efforts.
MORE: At a critical juncture for Ukraine, Biden and Putin meet.
Klitschko also stated that district-level evacuation plans had been established throughout the capital.
When speaking with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on Saturday morning, local time in Australia, Blinken underlined “the United States’ robust support for Ukraine in the face of an increasingly acute threat of possibly further Russian aggression.”.
When it comes to Russian aggression against Ukraine, Blinken “underscored that any and all consequences will be immediate, severe, and united,” according to spokesperson Ned Price.
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