Russia Ukraine Crisis News: An interior view shows a kindergarten, which according to Ukraine's military officials was damaged by shelling, in Stanytsia Luhanska, in the Luhansk region, Ukraine, February 17, 2022. (Reuters)Russia Ukraine Crisis Live: Russian-backed separatist authorities in eastern Ukraine said on Friday that a car had been blown up near their government building in the centre of the city of Donetsk, the TASS news agency reported. Russia’s Interfax news agency reported that nobody was hurt in the incident. Russia’s RIA news agency reported that there had been a large explosion.
The US now estimates that Russia probably has amassed between 169,000 and 190,000 personnel in and near Ukraine, up from about 100,000 on January 30, said Michael Carpenter, the permanent U.S. representative to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Russia has announced new drills involving ‘strategic forces’ on Saturday, with Moscow saying that Putin will oversee the operations. The number of Russian troops around Ukraine has reached 149,000, Kyiv said on Friday. The Guardian reported that the Russian drills will “involve forces and hardware belonging to the Aerospace Forces, the Southern Military District, the Strategic Missile Forces, the Northern Fleet, and the Black Sea Fleet”, the ministry said.
Meanwhile, shelling in Ukraine Thursday renewed Western fears of an imminent Russian invasion as US President Joe Biden said Moscow is preparing a pretext to justify a possible attack and the Kremlin expelled an American diplomat. Russia expelled US Deputy Chief of Mission Bart Gorman but a senior State Department official said he left last week. Moscow cited the US expulsion of a senior official in Washington, who it said was forced to leave before a replacement could be found as part of a US “visa war”. Washington said it would respond to the “unprovoked” move. Early morning exchanges of fire between Kyiv’s forces and pro-Russian separatists — who have been at war for years and where a ceasefire is periodically violated — caused alarm as Western countries have said an incursion could come at any time.
Ukrainian Army soldiers pose for a photo as they gather to celebrate a Day of Unity in Odessa, Ukraine, February 16, 2022. (AP)
Ukraine's top security official Oleksiy Danilov on Friday accused Russia of staging provocations in eastern Ukraine to try to provoke Ukraine's military to respond, but added that Ukraine would stick to peaceful ways to defuse the crisis.
In a joint briefing, Minister for Integration of the Temporary Occupied Territories Iryna Vereshchuk said Russia was trying to force Ukraine into making concessions.Danilov said Ukraine had no plans to liberate separatist-held territories by force, adding that a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine was unlikely. (Reuters)
Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine said on Friday they planned to evacuate around 700,000 people to Russia from the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR).
Most DPR residents are Russian speakers and many have already been granted Russian citizenship. Ukraine says the people who run the DPR are not separatists but Russian proxies, something the Kremlin denies. (Reuters)
Russian-backed separatist authorities in eastern Ukraine said on Friday that a car had been blown up near their government building in the centre of the city of Donetsk, the TASS news agency reported. Russia's Interfax news agency reported that nobody was hurt in the incident. Russia's RIA news agency reported that there had been a large explosion. (Reuters)
With East-West tensions at their highest point since the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Friday the world is probably a more dangerous place now than during the Cold War.
Guterres warned that a small mistake or miscommunication between major powers could have catastrophic consequences.
“I am often asked whether we are in a new Cold War,” Guterres said in his opening speech at an annual security conference in Munich. “My answer is that the threat to global security now is more complex and probably higher than at that time.”
During the decades-long standoff between the Soviet Union and the United States in the 20th century, “there were mechanisms that enabled the protagonists to calculate risks and use back-channels to prevent crises,” Guterres said. “Today, many of those systems no longer exist and most of the people trained to use them are no longer here with us.” (AP)
Oksana Pokalchuk, head of Amnesty International Ukraine, says that Russian state media is reporting a “major” explosion near a government building at the centre of Donetsk.
One by one, U.N. Security Council members called for a diplomatic solution to the crisis in Ukraine. Even Russia’s deputy foreign minister said everything should be done to find a diplomatic solution. But he didn’t respond to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s appeal to state unequivocally that Russia will not invade Ukraine.
So what Blinken called the most immediate threat to international peace and security in the world today remains, with all eyes still on Russia.
The annual Security Council meeting was called by Russia to focus on implementation of the Minsk Agreements aimed at restoring peace to eastern Ukraine where Russian-backed separatist have been at war with government troops since Moscow’s invasion of Crimea in 2014.
The open session brought together all the key players who now confront broader security grievances from Moscow: It is demanding a NATO ban on Ukraine joining the alliance, which its members say is impossible.
Blinken, alluding to a speech to the Security Council by his predecessor Colin Powell in 2003 laying out purported U.S. evidence of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction ahead of the American invasion which turned out to be erroneous, told council members he wanted to be clear: “I am here today not to start a war, but to prevent one.” (AP)
A separatist leader in eastern Ukraine has announced the evacuation of civilians to Russia amid soaring tensions.
Denish Pushilin, the head of the separatist government in the Donetsk region, said in a statement Friday that women, children and the elderly will be evacuated first, and that Russia has prepared the necessary facilities to accommodate them.
The move comes amid a spike in shelling across the line of contact between Ukrainian government forces and Russia-backed rebels in the region in recent days that fuelled Western fears that Moscow could use it as a pretext for an invasion.
The separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine erupted in 2014 and has killed over 14,000 people. (AP)
The U.S. now estimates that Russia probably has amassed between 169,000 and 190,000 personnel in and near Ukraine, up from about 100,000 on Jan. 30, said Michael Carpenter, the permanent U.S. representative to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
In addition to troops along the border, in neighboring Belarus and in Crimea, he said the estimate includes Russian-led forces in eastern Ukraine and also internal security units deployed to these areas. It was unclear if these forces were included in the most recent estimate of 150,000 troops.
Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday heralded NATO unity during the escalating Ukraine crisis and warned Russia that the U.S. and Western allies stood ready to respond with tough sanctions if President Vladimir Putin moves forward with an invasion of Ukraine.
In a meeting with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg as the annual Munich Security Conference got underway, Harris thanked the alliance for “all that you have done” throughout the crisis.
“We remain, of course, open to and desirous of diplomacy, as it relates to the dialogue and the discussions we have had with Russia, but we are also committed, if Russia takes aggressive action, to ensure there will be severe consequence in terms of the sanctions we have discussed,” Harris told Stoltenberg. “And we know the alliance is strong in that regard."
Harris and her top national security aides huddled with Stoltenberg after President Joe Biden on Thursday in Washington warned that “every indication” suggests Russia is "prepared to go into Ukraine, attack Ukraine.” (AP)
Ukraine foreign minister says, “We categorically refute Russian disinformation reports on Ukraine’s alleged offensive operations or acts of sabotage in chemical production facilities. Ukraine does not conduct or plan any such actions in the Donbas. We are fully committed to diplomatic conflict resolution only.”
Russia troop deployment on Ukraine border an 'absolutely unacceptable threat', German foreign minister Baerbock has said. Meanwhile, Ukraine separatist leader in Donetsk has said that civilians are being evacuated to Russia 'from today'. (AFP)
US Defence Secretary Austin has urged 'de-escalation' in call with Russian counterpart, say US officials. Russia creating 'false provocations' in Ukraine in past 24-48 hours. (AFP)
Shellfire rang out in eastern Ukraine on Friday as the army and Moscow-backed separatists accused each other of provocations and US warnings of an imminent Russian invasion stoked international tension.
Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden will hold video talks with Western leaders on Ukraine Friday. (AFP)
Ukraine's defence minister said Friday his armed forces do not intend to attack eastern separatists or launch an operation to reclaim the Russian-annexed peninsula of Crimea by force. (AFP)
In Dobryanka, locals have been hearing about various Russian military drills near Ukraine for much of the past year. Some seem more exhausted than frightened by all the talk of war.
Speaking at the Indian Express Explained Live, Dr C Raja Mohan, Visiting Research Professor, National University of Singapore, dissected various dimensions of the Russia-Ukraine conflict and its impact on India
The U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly Thursday to show unwavering support for an independent Ukraine and “condemn" Russian military aggression toward its neighbor as fresh fears emerged of a possible invasion that could spiral toward a European war.
Action in the Senate came after President Joe Biden said the U.S. has “every indication" of a potential Russian attack on Ukraine in a matter of days. U.S. officials have outlined stark scenarios of President Vladimir Putin's potential plans as Russian troops remain massed at the Ukraine border.
The resolution from the senators does not carry the force of law but puts the U.S. legislative body on record with “unwavering United States support for a secure, democratic, and independent Ukraine” and “denounces the Russian military buildup" on Ukraine’s border. The vote was unanimous, without objection or the formal roll call.
“This Congress is united in its support of Ukrainian independence and sovereignty," said Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, in introducing the measure with Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire and others.
Senators have been racing all week to mount a response to rising tensions in the region, many eager to go even further by imposing devastating sanctions on Putin that would send shockwaves through the Russian economy. (AP)
Number of Russian troops around Ukraine reaches 149,000: Kyiv
Russia has announced new drills involving 'strategic forces' on Saturday. Moscow says Putin to oversee 'strategic' missile drills, reports AFP.
The Guardian reported that the Russian drills will “involve forces and hardware belonging to the Aerospace Forces, the Southern Military District, the Strategic Missile Forces, the Northern Fleet, and the Black Sea Fleet”, the ministry said.
It added, “A scheduled exercise of the strategic deterrence forces aims at checking the preparedness of military commands and crews of missile systems, warships and strategic bombers to accomplish their missions and at verifying the reliability of weapons of strategic nuclear and conventional forces.”
Ukraine estimates the probability of a major escalation of conflict with Russia to be low, Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov told parliament Friday.
"Our intelligence sees every move that could pose a potential threat to Ukraine. We estimate the probability of a large-scale escalation as low," Reznikov said.
He said Russia had amassed some 1,49,000 troops around Ukraine and another several thousand were expected to arrive in the near future. (Reuters)