PremiumWith tension running high over Russia’s military buildup near Ukraine, cease-fire monitors along the line dividing Ukrainian government forces and Russian-backed separatists reported a surge in violations.
Russia is preparing to plunge Europe into its worst conflict since World War II, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said, warning that any invasion of Ukraine would freeze Moscow out of global finance. "The fact is that all the signs are that the plan has already in some senses begun," he said in a BBC interview broadcast Sunday from the Munich Security Conference, after two Ukrainian soldiers were killed in attacks around rebel-held enclaves. – AFP
Last-ditch diplomatic efforts were underway on Sunday to prevent what Western powers warn could be the imminent Russian invasion of Ukraine and a catastrophic European war.
Hundreds of artillery shells exploded along the contact line between Ukrainian soldiers and Russia-backed separatists, and thousands of people evacuated eastern Ukraine, further increasing fears Sunday that the volatile region could spark a Russian invasion.
The assessments of US and British spies on Ukraine cannot be trusted as they made so many grave mistakes in the run up to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, Russia's first deputy permanent representative to the United Nations said on Sunday.
"We don't trust the US and British intelligence, they let us down, the whole world, on many occasions enough to remember weapons of mass destruction in Iraq," Dmitry Polyanskiy told Sky.
A Russian invasion of Ukraine now seems "far more likely than unlikely" and all the signs suggest it is "very, very imminent", Britain's minister for Europe said on Sunday.
The United States and Britain would seek to cut off Russian companies' access to U.S. dollars and British pounds if the Kremlin orders an invasion of Ukraine, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told the BBC.
"The plan that we are seeing is for something that could be really the biggest war in Europe since 1945 just in terms of sheer scale," Johnson said.
Johnson said that sanctions on Russia in the event of an invasion would go much further than previously suggested in public.
Ukraine on Sunday suspended operations at one of the seven checkpoints to territory in the eastern Donbass region controlled by Russia-backed separatists, due to heavy shelling, the Ukrainian military said.
French President Emmanuel Macron will call Russia's Vladimir Putin on Sunday to try to avert what Western powers predict will be an imminent invasion of Ukraine.
Over the weekend, civilians were evacuated from increasingly barraged front line regions where Kyiv said Saturday two of its soldiers had died in an attack -- the first fatalities in the conflict in more than a month.
Switzerland's Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) is urging Swiss nationals to leave the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in Ukraine's southeast (Donbas) amid escalations on the contact line.
"The FDFA recommends that people of Swiss nationality in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions leave these regions temporarily by their own means. Some airlines have reduced or suspended their flights to Ukraine," the foreign ministry said in a Saturday travel update.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday his country deserved more support in the face of a feared invasion, as NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg warned that everything indicated Russia was preparing a "fully-fledged attack".
The G7 Foreign Ministers expressed their grave concern about Russia's 'threatening' military build-up around Ukraine, in 'illegally annexed' Crimea and in Belarus and warned Moscow of "massive consequences" upon any further aggression against Ukraine.
US President Joe Biden will hold a meeting of the National Security Council on the situation in Ukraine on Sunday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki says.
"President Biden continues to monitor the evolving situation in Ukraine and is being updated regularly about events on the ground by his national security team. They reaffirmed that Russia could launch an attack against Ukraine at any time," Psaki said in a Saturday statement.
Never miss a story! Stay connected and informed with Mint. Download our App Now!!