Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold telephone calls with U.S. President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron on February 12 amid growing fears Russia may be preparing for an invasion of Ukraine.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on February 11 that the request for a phone call between Putin and Biden came from Washington. A White House official confirmed that the call will take place, according to Reuters. The call with Macron, which Peskov confirmed, comes days after the two leaders met in Moscow for more than five hours of talks.
The calls were arranged after U.S. officials said Russia has massed enough troops near Ukraine to launch a major invasion and urged all U.S. citizens to leave the country within 48 hours.
In Photos: New Images Capture Russia Massing Weaponry Around Ukraine
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he would speak to his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, on February 12 in a last-ditch attempt to head off a possible invasion.
"We continue to see very troubling signs of Russian escalation, including new forces arriving around Ukraine's borders," Blinken said at a press conference in Fij on February 12. He expressed hope that Putin would choose diplomacy but said Washington would impose economic sanctions if Moscow invades.
"I continue to hope that he will not choose the path of renewed aggression and he'll chose the path of diplomacy and dialogue," Blinken told told reporters. "But if he doesn't, we're prepared."
A major military operation against Ukraine could begin "any day now,” even before the end of the Winter Olympics, White House national-security adviser Jake Sullivan said on February 11 as he urged Americans to leave the country within 48 hours.
Speaking to reporters at the White House, Sullivan also said that if a Russian attack on Ukraine proceeds, “it is likely to begin with aerial bombing and missile attacks that could obviously kill civilians."
Sullivan said such an air assault would make departures difficult, therefore any American still in Ukraine “should leave as soon as possible, and in any event in the next 24 to 48 hours."
Echoing comments earlier on February 11 by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Sullivan said U.S. intelligence now believes Russian President Vladimir Putin could order an invasion before the end of the Winter Olympics in Beijing. He also said a rapid assault on the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, is a possibility.
It remains unclear, Sullivan said, whether Putin has definitively given an order to start an invasion. Thus far, Russia has denied it plans to invade Ukraine.
Sullivan spoke after President Joe Biden held a video call with transatlantic leaders and sought allied unity in the face of a worsening situation.
Biden also ordered the deployment of an additional 3,000 U.S. soldiers to NATO ally Poland. A statement from the Pentagon on February 11 said the troops should be in place by "early next week," joining some 1,700 soldiers who arrived in Poland at the start of the month.
"All told, these 5,000 additional personnel comprise a highly mobile and flexible force, capable of multiple missions. They are being deployed to reassure our NATO allies, deter any potential aggression against NATO’s eastern flank, train with host-nation forces, and contribute to a wide range of contingencies," the Pentagon statement said.
On February 11, the Russian Foreign Ministry said it had received "no substantive reaction" from the EU and NATO over its demands for guarantees on European security, including a legally binding commitment that NATO will not accept Ukraine and other former Soviet states as members, that the alliance will halt weapon deployments there, and also roll back its forces from Eastern Europe.
"Simply put, we continue to see very troubling signs of Russian escalation, including new forces arriving at the Ukrainian border," Blinken told a news conference in the Australian city of Melbourne on February 11.
"As we've said before, we're in a window when an invasion could begin at any time, and to be clear, that includes during the Olympics," he said, adding that Washington was continuing to "draw down" its embassy staff in Kyiv and repeated a State Department call to U.S. citizens in Ukraine to leave the country immediately.
Russia denies Western accusations it may be planning an invasion. But it is also holding military drills in Belarus involving some 30,000 troops, a move the West has called provocative. The Winter Olympics are being hosted by Beijing until February 20 and countries traditionally, though not always, adhere to a truce to stop all hostilities through the course of the Games.
The U.S. State Department previously urged Americans in Ukraine to leave immediately and the Associated Press said the United States is set to evacuate its embassy in Kyiv.
The West has said Moscow's main demands are nonstarters, with the EU and NATO delivering joint responses this week saying their members had agreed to speak as one.
Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Russia would respond in the "nearest future" to counterproposals on European security made by the United States and NATO.
He made the remarks after talks with British Defense Minister Ben Wallace, who arrived in the Russian capital earlier on February 11.
Shoigu urged the West to stop supplying arms to Ukraine and said Russia was not the one to blame for the rising tensions in Europe, according to Interfax. He also said he wanted to know why London was sending special forces to Ukraine.
Wallace described his talks with Shoigu as constructive and frank. He said he took Russian assurances that Moscow will not invade Ukraine seriously, but that he wanted to see accompanying action.
He reaffirmed that a Russian invasion would have “tragic consequences” and emphasized the need to maintain contacts between military forces to prevent incidents.
