Biden calls president of Ukraine, warn him about Russian invasion
Pentagon spokesman, John Kirby revealed that troops from Fort Bragg, Fort Carson and Fort Campbell are among the 8,500 on heightened alert
Biden and Zelensky had a phone call today where the president reportedly told the Ukrainian leader to brace for an imminent invasion
The Defense Department is preparing for a potential deployment into Europe
NATO and US sent letters to Putin dismissing his main security demands around Ukraine, amid fear of war
Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesman, said there is ‘little room for optimism’ as Russia considers its response
Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s top negotiator, left door to more talks open but said decision will be up to Putin
President Joe Biden reportedly told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday to brace his country for a certain Russian invasion.
Biden told Zelensky that an invasion is virtually certain and to ‘brace for impact,’ according to CNN report.
The two world leaders conversed on the phone as the Department of Defense was issuing a chilling warning that same afternoon that a Russian invasion into Ukraine ‘could be imminent’ amid a drastic increase in combat forces at the former Soviet state’s borders.
‘We continue to see, including in the last 24 hours, more accumulation of credible combat forces arrayed by the Russians in, again, the western part of their country and in Belarus,’ Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said at a press conference.
Kirby also revealed that troops from Fort Bragg, Fort Carson and Fort Campbell have been placed on heightened alert to deploy to Eastern Europe as tensions in the region compound.
A readout by the White House after Biden’s call with Zelensky was much more toned down than the president’s reported warning.
‘President Biden reaffirmed the readiness of the United States along with its allies and partners to respond decisively if Russia further invades Ukraine. He also underscored the commitment of the United States to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,’ the statement read.
It noted that the U.S. had provided Ukraine with more than $500 million aid dollars in the last year, and ‘is exploring additional macroeconomic support to help Ukraine’s economy amidst pressure resulting from Russia’s military build-up.’
The US State Department has said it anticipates an attack on Ukraine launched by the Kremlin in as early as mid-February.
Asked about the Defense Department’s timeline, Kirby said: ‘We have always said and said for quite some time, another incursion by Russia could be imminent — and imminent means imminent.’
He declined to give a specific timeline but added that there was no ‘final decision’ by Vladimir Putin to send his military into Ukraine.
‘We believe here at the department, there is still time and space for diplomacy,’ Kirby said.
Earlier this week Kirby revealed that 8,500 U.S.-based troops would be placed on high alert to deploy to NATO countries in Eastern Europe in the event the Western alliance activates its Response Force.
Servicemen hold their Kalashnikov rifles as they talk to each other in a trench on the territory controlled by pro-Russian militants on the frontline with Ukrainian government forces near Spartak village in Yasynuvata district of Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine on Thursday, Jan. 27, 2022
He said on Thursday that those units include service members from the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, in North Carolina, the 18th Airborne Corps at Fort Bragg and Fort Campbell, Kentucky, the 101st Airborne at Fort Campbell and 4th Infantry at Fort Carson, Colorado.
The teams would be made up of medical support, aviation support, logistics support and combat formations, Kirby said.
He stressed again that the units are on heightened alert and have no order to deploy at present.
The world has been holding its breath today, waiting for Vladimir Putin to respond after he was sent two letters dismissing his top security demands around Ukraine.
Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesman, said Thursday that the Russian strongman is still mulling over letters from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and NATO chief Jens Stoltenburg which are thought to have ruled out the possibility of Ukraine being banned from the alliance and the removal of troops from ex-Soviet states.
Blinken’s letter was delivered to Moscow’s foreign ministry late last night, handed over in-person by ambassador John Sullivan who was pictured leaving the building as snow fell, clutching a black leather folder in his hand.
While giving little ground on Russia’s main demands, Blinken said the letter does present ‘serious’ offers to de-escalate tensions – thought to include controls on nuclear arms and limits on military exercises.
Concerns are growing that President Joe Biden may be blocked by some NATO allies from deployment U.S. forces to Eastern Europe and the Baltic region if he tries to use the NATO Response Force (NRF). Just one county’s objection would block the move
Peskov said there is ‘little room for optimism’ after an initial reading and that Moscow’s main concerns are being ignored, but left the option of further talks open – at least for now. ‘We won’t rush with our assessments,’ he said.
Separately, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the letter contains some elements that could lead to ‘the start of a serious talk on secondary issues’ but ‘contains no positive response on the main issue,’
Lavrov said top officials will now submit their proposals to Putin, and that his response would come ‘soon’.
With the threat of war hanging heavy in the air, Russia’s troop build-up on Ukraine’s border continued today as Ukrainian troops were pictured training with British NLAW anti-tank weapons that were delivered last week as part of a package of UK military aid.
British instructors have been sent to train the Ukrainians to use the rockets, and Kiev’s troops were seen carrying them around a fake combat zone as they prepared for a Russian attack. NLAWs are disposable missile launchers that use tracking technology and high-explosive warheads to take out tanks, such as the ones used by Russia.
It comes after it was revealed that UK warships and fighter jets could be on the move within days towards eastern Europe in an attempt to deter a Russian attack.
Defense Secretary Ben Wallace – who is in Berlin today ahead of talks with his Russian counterpart in Moscow – is understood to have requested a range of options from military chiefs.
That includes deploying British troops to Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary alongside thousands of American soldiers heading to the region. Washington has asked its allies to contribute manpower.
The move is significant because it was expected to come only after an attack on Ukraine.
Ben Wallace said there is still ‘a chance’ of avoiding conflict in Ukraine but admitted he is ‘not optimistic’
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said the UK is not ruling out support for personal sanctions against President Vladimir Putin in the event Russia invades
NATO is considering deploying some troops in Slovakia along with other countries on its eastern flank in response to the Russian military build-up near Ukraine, the Slovak foreign minister said
A Russian foreign ministry spokesman said even the thought of a war breaking out between Russia and Ukraine was ‘unacceptable’, as Moscow continued to deny plans to attack.
Putin visits the Piskaryovskoye Memorial Cemetery to mark the 78th anniversary of the end of Leningrad Siege
Ukrainian soldier kills five after opening fire at a military factory
A Ukrainian National Guard soldier has shot dead five people and injured five more at a military factory in the country’s east.
Artem Ryabchuk gunned down four servicemen and one civilian woman at the Pivdenmash missile factory in Dinpro in the early hours of this morning, less than 200 miles from the Russian border where 100,000 troops are stationed.
The killing spree occurred on the outskirts of the war-torn Donbas region which has been gripped by conflict between pro-Russian separatist rebels and government troops since 2014.
The soldier, 21, started the attack during the issuance of weapons before going on the run armed with a Kalashnikov.
The gunman was later detained after hitchhiking away from the scene of the massacre as the authorities staged an hour-long manhunt.
Investigators, who are yet to establish a motive, are now probing how he passed a medical commission allowing him access to the Kalashnikov rifle and 200 cartridges.
They will also investigate whether he faced any psychological pressures in his team.
Doctors are still fighting to save the lives of the five people injured in the killing spree, police said.
The dead were named as Senior Lieutenant Oleksandr Buganov, 34, Senior soldier Artyom Levkivskyi, 21, Junior Sergeant Oleksandr Dragan, 24, Senior Soldier Leonid Chernik, 19, and senior soldier, and civilian guard Vera Lebydinets, 35.
The wounded were named as Denis Namestnik, 19, Vladislav Gulida, 22,Igor Semenchenko, 24, Zhanna Sharova, 22, and Yevgen Machula, 20.
Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky said: ‘Following my order, a commission will be set up to study the circumstances that led to these actions being taken by a 21-year-old soldier, who had been called to defend his country and be responsible for security – and not to shoot his colleagues.’
Police said he had been detained in the town of Pidgorodne outside Dnipro, a city with an estimated population of around one million people.
RAF pilots and crews have experience of policing the region’s airspace because Typhoons from the 121 Expeditionary Air Wing spent much of 2021 in Romania on manoeuvres.
Royal Navy sailors witnessed Russian aggression last summer when HMS Defender drew enemy fire in the Black Sea off Crimea.
The units will not deploy to Ukraine but to neighbouring Nato states as a deterrent.
Western security sources say there are now between 112,000 and 120,000 combat-ready soldiers at the front with more on their way. ‘[It] could be a lot more’, one source told NBC.
Videos also revealed columns of armoured vehicles and fighter jets being moved to Belarus, ostensibly for military exercises next month though the fear is they could be used for a lightning-fast offensive on Kiev which sits just a few dozen miles away.
Amid the tensions, a Ukrainian national guard conscript opened fire on a military factory in the centre of the country – killing five and wounding five more with a rifle he had just been handed.
Artemiy Ryabchuk, 21, opened fire around 1.40am in the city of Dnipro which sits on the Dnieper river around 170 miles from Crimea. He fled the scene and is now being hunted, with Ukrainian security services saying his motive is unclear.
However, it comes after security experts warned Russia may launch covert attacks inside Ukraine, either as a pre-text to an invasion, or simply as a way of destabilising the country and sapping confidence in the prime minister.
President Biden also stepped up his threat of economic sanctions in the wake of the letters being sent, saying that Nord Stream 2 – Russia’s $11billion gas pipe to Germany – would categorically not go ahead if Ukraine is attacked.
However, Germany has not given any such guarantee and it is unclear how exactly Biden plans to stop the pipe if Berlin refuses to play ball. Nord Stream 2 completed construction last year after Biden lifted sanctions on the company building it, and it only needs German approval to begin pumping gas.
Major combat readiness drills are being carried out in eastern Europe from the Baltic to the Black seas with the Russian Northern Fleet also drilling in the Arctic.
Footage shows a live-fire exercise against a ‘mock enemy’ by the Aleksin and Kabardino-Balkariya antisubmarine ships in the Baltic. The vessels are part of a 20-ship naval task force currently at sea, with a similar operation underway in the Black Sea.
‘The combat exercise was carried out at varying distances using shipborne artillery weapons, AK-176M and AK-630M,’ said a statement from the Russian Baltic Fleet.
Separately Su-24M front-line bombers and Su-30SM multirole fighters practiced bombing targets at a training range in Kaliningrad, a Russian exclave wedged between NATO countries Lithuania and Poland.
And drills were held in the same location with Mi-24 and Mi-8 attack helicopters.
A massive Russian military buildup in Belarus deepened as a video showed the the completion of the transfer of dozens of Sukhoi Su-35S fighter jets from the extreme east of Russia.
The footage shows the warplanes arriving in autocratic Belarus which borders Ukraine, ostensibly for military exercises, but the West fears the massing of troops and military equipment is an invasion force.
Separately, a another video shows a drill to move Su-35S and Su-30SM fighters and Su-34 bombers from their permanent airfields due to an enemy missile strike.
Elsewhere it was revealed that thousands of Russian communications troops in the military district bordering Ukraine are involved in ‘large scale radio training’ as part of a combat readiness exercise.
‘More than 1,500 military personnel are taking part in the planned combat training event,’ said commander of the Western Military District Col-Gen Alexander Zhuravlev.
Some 300 units of military and hi-tech equipment is involved, including the modern P-260 Redut, Andromeda and Belozer complexes, he said.
Blinken said he would speak again in the coming days to Lavrov, as a separate initiative by France brought a promise by Moscow at least to keep talking to Ukraine’s government.
One month after Russia put forward sweeping security proposals, having sent tens of thousands of troops to Ukraine’s border, the United States delivered a reply in co-ordination with NATO allies and said it was ready for any eventuality.
‘It sets out a serious diplomatic path forward should Russia choose it,’ Blinken told reporters of the US response, which he said would remain confidential.
He renewed an offer on ‘reciprocal’ measures to address mutual security concerns, including reductions of missiles in Europe and transparency on military drills and Western aid to Ukraine.
But he made clear that the United States would not budge on Russia’s core demand that Ukraine never be allowed to join NATO, the US-backed military alliance.
‘From our perspective, I can’t be more clear – NATO’s door is open, remains open, and that is our commitment,’ Blinken said.
