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Post by Admin on Jan 23, 2022 18:27:31 GMT
UK warns Russian government will face ‘serious consequences’ if Ukraine is invaded - BBC News 47,861 views • Jan 24, 2022 • The UK has accused Russia’s President Vladimir Putin of plotting to install a pro-Moscow figure to lead Ukraine's government.
Russia has moved 100,000 troops near to its border with Ukraine but denies it is planning an invasion.
UK ministers have warned that the Russian government will face serious consequences if there is an incursion.
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Post by Admin on Jan 23, 2022 21:02:49 GMT
Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Sunday rejected a British claim that the Kremlin is seeking to replace Ukraine’s government with a pro-Moscow administration, and that former Ukrainian lawmaker Yevheniy Murayev is a potential candidate. Britain’s Foreign Office on Saturday also named several other Ukrainian politicians it said had links with Russian intelligence services, along with Murayev who is the leader of a small party that has no seats in parliament. Those politicians include Mykola Azarov, a former prime minister under Viktor Yanukovych, the Ukrainian president ousted in a 2014 uprising, and Yanukovych’s former chief of staff, Andriy Kluyev. “Some of these have contact with Russian intelligence officers currently involved in the planning for an attack on Ukraine,” the Foreign Office said. Murayev told The Associated Press via Skype that the British claim “looks ridiculous and funny” and that he has been denied entry to Russia since 2018 on the grounds of being a threat to Russian security. He said that sanction was imposed in the wake of a conflict with Viktor Medvedchuk, Ukraine’s most prominent pro-Russia politician and a friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Murayev’s Nashi party — whose name echoes the former Russian youth movement that supported Putin — is regarded as sympathetic to Russia, but Murayev on Sunday pushed back on characterizing it as pro-Russia. “The time of pro-Western and pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine is gone forever,” he said in a Facebook post. “Everything that does not support the pro-Western path of development of Ukraine is automatically pro-Russian,” Murayev told The AP. He also said he supports Ukraine having neutral status and believes that “striving for NATO is tantamount to continuing the war.” Ukrainian forces and Russia-backed separatists have been fighting in the country’s east since 2014, a conflict that has killed more than 14,000. Ukrainian political analyst Volodymyr Fesenko described Murayev as a significant figure in Ukraine’s pro-Russia camp, but added: “Murayev is a second-place player. I don’t think Murayev has direct connections in the Kremlin.” The U.K. government made the claim based on an intelligence assessment, without providing evidence to back it up. It comes amid high tensions between Moscow and the West over Russia’s designs on Ukraine and each side’s increasing accusations that the other is planning provocations. “The disinformation spread by the British Foreign Office is more evidence that it is the NATO countries, led by the Anglo-Saxons, who are escalating tensions around Ukraine,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on the Telegram messaging app Sunday. “We call on the British Foreign Office to stop provocative activities, stop spreading nonsense.” British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said the information “shines a light on the extent of Russian activity designed to subvert Ukraine, and is an insight into Kremlin thinking.”
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Post by Admin on Jan 24, 2022 1:54:59 GMT
Standoff between Russia and the West intensifies 12,567 views • Jan 24, 2022 • The State Department is telling non-essential embassy staff and their families to leave Ukraine.
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Post by Admin on Jan 24, 2022 4:18:51 GMT
The United States is ordering the relatives of American embassy staffers in Ukraine to leave the country, while giving certain diplomats the option to depart, the State Department said on Sunday, in the latest sign that American officials think Russia is likely to once again invade Ukraine. The authorized and ordered departures followed assurances by Secretary of State Antony Blinken that the U.S. and allied nations are prepared to counter Russia if it continues its aggressive actions toward Ukraine. Blinken said on Sunday that officials were readying an array of options to respond to various moves by Moscow, although a diplomatic resolution was the preferred path. “We’re prepared either way,” Blinken said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “Basically, at this point, the choice is Vladimir Putin’s,” he said of the Russian president, who previously invaded Ukraine in 2014. Senior State Department officials, in announcing the departure decisions for U.S. Embassy staff and their families in Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, reiterated earlier warnings that American citizens should avoid travel to the country at this time. U.S. citizens currently in Ukraine should consider leaving by commercial airlines or other available means, the officials added. The officials declined to offer statistics on how many diplomats and their family members could be affected. They noted, however, that the embassy would stay open, and that the optional departure of some staffers — those American employees who fall into non-emergency categories — wasn’t meant as a knock on the Ukrainian government. The actions “in no way undermine our support for or commitment to Ukraine,” a senior State Department official said. The officials did, however, say they remained concerned about internal political stability in Ukraine, which Russia has tried to destabilize through disinformation and other means. In a recent statement, the British Foreign Office said it had evidence that Putin’s government wants to install a Russia-friendly government in Ukraine while it considers invading. U.S. officials have privately said that American citizens should not expect an Afghanistan-style evacuation operation in Ukraine, and that the situation in Kabul last August was a highly unusual one that should not be considered a precedent. American citizens aren’t required to register with the U.S. government when they go abroad, and State Department officials said they did not know how many were in Ukraine.
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Post by Admin on Jan 24, 2022 20:51:17 GMT
At President Joe Biden’s direction, the Pentagon is putting about 8,500 U.S.-based troops on heightened alert for potential deployment to Europe to reassure allies amid rising fears of a possible Russian military move on Ukraine. Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said Monday no final decisions had been made on deployments, which he said would happen only if the NATO alliance decides to activate a rapid-response force “or if other situations develop” in connection with tensions over Russia’s military buildup along Ukraine’s borders. “What this is about is reassurance to our NATO allies,” Kirby said, adding that no troops are intended for deployment to Ukraine itself. Kirby said Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin recommended to Biden that about 8,500 troops be ordered to prepare for potential deployment to Europe in light of signs that Russian President Vladimir Putin is not de-escalating his military pressure on Ukraine. Kirby said he was not prepared to identify the U.S.-based units because they were still being notified. “We’ve always said we would reinforce our allies on the eastern flank, and those conversations and discussions have certainly been part of what our national security officials have been discussing with their counterparts now for several weeks,” said White House press secretary Jen Psaki. Later Monday, Biden was to hold a video call with several European leaders on the Russian military buildup and potential responses to an invasion, the White House said. Kirby said Austin was anticipating the potential for NATO to activate what it calls the NATO Response Force, a multinational force totaling about 40,000 troops. Most of the 8,500 U.S. troops being put on higher alert would be sent as part of that response force, if it’s activated, Kirby said. He added that he could not rule out that U.S. troops already based in Europe could be shifted east as further reinforcements. As an example of the effect of Austin’s order to make U.S.-based units more prepared for deployment, Kirby said that those currently required to be ready to move on 10-days notice will be required to be ready on 5-days notice. The Pentagon’s move comes as tensions have soared between Russia and the West over concerns that Moscow is planning to invade Ukraine, with NATO outlining potential troop and ship deployments, Britain saying it would withdraw some diplomats from Kyiv, and Ireland denouncing upcoming Russian war games off its coast. Prior to the U.S. announcement, the Western alliance’s statement summed up moves already described by member countries, but restating them under the NATO banner appeared aimed at showing resolve. The West is ramping up its rhetoric in the information war that has accompanied the Ukraine standoff. Russia has massed an estimated 100,000 troops near Ukraine’s border, demanding that NATO promise it will never allow Ukraine to join and that other actions, such as stationing alliance troops in former Soviet bloc countries, be curtailed. Some of these, like any pledge to permanently bar Ukraine, are nonstarters for NATO — creating a deadlock that many fear can only end in war.
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