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WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden is meeting with his National Security Council on Sunday as Russian tanks are reported to be rumbling toward Ukraine in what Washington says is a foregone decision by Moscow to invade the neighbouring country.
There was a glimmer of hope that precipitous action by Russia could be averted following the French President Emmanuel Macron engaging his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin with a pledge to convene “a meeting at the highest level to define a new order of peace and security in Europe.” The White House has not responded to the French proposal.
Armored tanks painted with a letter ‘Z’ are reported to be rolling from Shebekino in Russia, towards Ukraine’s Kharkiv Oblast just across the border, according to Twitter posts from military analysts accompanied by videos. The marking are said to be aimed at differentiating Russian tanks assigned with specific roles and preventing friendly fire.
The forward troop movement is taking place even as Macron reached out to his Russian counterpart to forestall what Nato allies say is an imminent invasion. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also urged Putin to meet him for talks amid the escalating crisis, saying “I don’t know what the president of the Russian Federation wants,” but that Ukraine would continue “to follow only the diplomatic path.”
On its part, Moscow says the US and Nato allies have not responded to specific proposals by Russia to take the talks forward. While there was a glimmer of hope that the situation would be defused following a 105-minute phone talk between Macron and Putin, where they reportedly agreed on “the need to favor a diplomatic solution to the ongoing crisis and to do everything to achieve one,” there was a hint of impatience on part of Moscow at what it sees as delay and obfuscation on part of US and Nato allies.
The Russian President “once again emphasised the need for the US and Nato to take Russia’s demands to ensure its security guarantees as seriously as possible and to respond specifically and to the point,” Kremlin said in a statement.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken is scheduled to meet his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday but President Biden has said the talks will be off if the invasion takes place before that.
Blinken said on a Sunday TV talk show that Biden is prepared to engage with Putin “at any time, in any format, if that can help prevent a war,” but didn’t sound very optimistic.
“We believe President Putin has made the decision [to invade Ukraine]. But until the tanks are actually rolling and the planes are flying, we will use every opportunity and every minute we have to see if diplomacy can still dissuade President Putin from carrying this forward,” he told CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Russia continues to deny that it plans to invade Ukraine, and every day and every hour that is does not do that diminishes US credibility, already on the rack for botched intelligence during the Gulf War. American officials have suggested Washington is willing to live with that if it prevents Russia from going through with the invasion to prove US wrong.
Russia’s deputy ambassador to the UN Dmitry Polyanskiy rubbed it , telling Sky News on Sunday that the US and UK’s assessment of an imminent Russian invasion can’t be trusted because “they let us down, the whole world, on many occasions enough to remember weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.”
In US, right wing commentators trolled the Biden administration and “credulous” mainstream media, saying they first claimed Russia would invade Ukraine on the 16th, and when no invasion came, moved the goalpost to the 20th. “Today’s the 20th, and no invasion. Waiting to hear what the next goalpost will be,” sneered one tweet.
There was a glimmer of hope that precipitous action by Russia could be averted following the French President Emmanuel Macron engaging his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin with a pledge to convene “a meeting at the highest level to define a new order of peace and security in Europe.” The White House has not responded to the French proposal.
Armored tanks painted with a letter ‘Z’ are reported to be rolling from Shebekino in Russia, towards Ukraine’s Kharkiv Oblast just across the border, according to Twitter posts from military analysts accompanied by videos. The marking are said to be aimed at differentiating Russian tanks assigned with specific roles and preventing friendly fire.
The forward troop movement is taking place even as Macron reached out to his Russian counterpart to forestall what Nato allies say is an imminent invasion. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also urged Putin to meet him for talks amid the escalating crisis, saying “I don’t know what the president of the Russian Federation wants,” but that Ukraine would continue “to follow only the diplomatic path.”
On its part, Moscow says the US and Nato allies have not responded to specific proposals by Russia to take the talks forward. While there was a glimmer of hope that the situation would be defused following a 105-minute phone talk between Macron and Putin, where they reportedly agreed on “the need to favor a diplomatic solution to the ongoing crisis and to do everything to achieve one,” there was a hint of impatience on part of Moscow at what it sees as delay and obfuscation on part of US and Nato allies.
The Russian President “once again emphasised the need for the US and Nato to take Russia’s demands to ensure its security guarantees as seriously as possible and to respond specifically and to the point,” Kremlin said in a statement.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken is scheduled to meet his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday but President Biden has said the talks will be off if the invasion takes place before that.
Blinken said on a Sunday TV talk show that Biden is prepared to engage with Putin “at any time, in any format, if that can help prevent a war,” but didn’t sound very optimistic.
“We believe President Putin has made the decision [to invade Ukraine]. But until the tanks are actually rolling and the planes are flying, we will use every opportunity and every minute we have to see if diplomacy can still dissuade President Putin from carrying this forward,” he told CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Russia continues to deny that it plans to invade Ukraine, and every day and every hour that is does not do that diminishes US credibility, already on the rack for botched intelligence during the Gulf War. American officials have suggested Washington is willing to live with that if it prevents Russia from going through with the invasion to prove US wrong.
Russia’s deputy ambassador to the UN Dmitry Polyanskiy rubbed it , telling Sky News on Sunday that the US and UK’s assessment of an imminent Russian invasion can’t be trusted because “they let us down, the whole world, on many occasions enough to remember weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.”
In US, right wing commentators trolled the Biden administration and “credulous” mainstream media, saying they first claimed Russia would invade Ukraine on the 16th, and when no invasion came, moved the goalpost to the 20th. “Today’s the 20th, and no invasion. Waiting to hear what the next goalpost will be,” sneered one tweet.
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