Chris Lange, FISM News
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Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby declined to confirm U.S. intelligence reports indicating that Russia will launch an attack on Ukraine this Wednesday.
“I’m not in a position to confirm those reports,” Kirby said during a “Fox News Sunday” interview. Kirby did reference “a mosaic of intelligence…telling us that things are sort of building now to some crescendo opportunity for Mr. Putin,” though he declined to provide further details.
Kirby also indicated that the White House has abandoned any plan of levying preemptive sanctions against Russia ahead of a potential Ukraine invasion, saying that the threat of the imposition of sanctions after a potential invasion have had a “deterrent effect.”
“Right now, we are not considering a preemptive sanction regime,” Kirby said.
Western fears of a possible war in Eastern Europe have ratcheted up significantly over the past several days.
The number of Russian troops surrounding Ukraine now numbers over 130,000. The White House urged the 30,000 Americans living in Ukraine to pack up and head elsewhere last week, amid reports the administration is crafting an evacuation plan in the event of an invasion. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin also ordered U.S. troops who deployed to Ukraine in 2021 to leave the country and reposition elsewhere in Europe.
Senior White House White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan repeated his warning that Russia could launch an attack on Ukraine “any day now,” including before the Winter Olympic Games end on Feb. 20.
“We cannot perfectly predict the day, but we have now been saying for some time that we are in the window, and an invasion could begin — a major military action could begin — by Russia in Ukraine any day now,” Sullivan told CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday when asked about the intelligence reports indicating a possible Wednesday attack.
Both Sullivan and Kirby repeated warnings for Americans to leave Ukraine.
“What we’ve seen just in the last 10 days or so is an acceleration of that buildup and movement of Russian forces of all varieties, closer to the border with Ukraine, in a position where they could launch a military action very, very rapidly,” Sullivan said.
President Biden on Saturday held a hastily arranged, high-stakes phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov described the discussion between the two leaders as “balanced and businesslike,” but said Washington and NATO have failed to address Russia’s security concerns.
Biden, who spent the weekend at Camp David, also spoke with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky and conferred with Transatlantic Leaders to discuss continuing diplomatic efforts to defuse mounting tensions in Eastern Europe. The group confirmed their readiness to impose “severe” economic sanctions on Russia “should it choose military escalation.” They also agreed to continue shoring up their joint “defensive posture on NATO’s eastern flank.” The leaders said they will remain in close contact as they continue working “with and through NATO, the EU, the OSCE, and the UN” to address the crisis.
The president is expected to speak with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson Monday in a continued effort to bolster international unity against a possible Russian invasion, according to an unnamed White House official who spoke to Reuters.