The US foresees a possible imminent Russian attack on Ukraine

The United States estimated this Wednesday that Russia could attack Ukraine in the next three weeks, when in Paris a meeting of European diplomats seeks how to reduce the tension between Moscow and Kiev.

“Everything indicates” that the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, “will use military force at some point, perhaps between now and mid-February,” said US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, who said she did not know if he made a “decision.”

The number two of the American diplomacy assured that the Beijing Olympics, which begin on February 4, could influence the decision, since, in his opinion, Chinese President Xi Jinping would not like to have Putin there if “he chooses that moment to invade Ukraine”.

However, the US embassy in Kiev on Wednesday “urged” its citizens to leave Ukraine without delay in the face of “the growing threat of Russian military action.”

Tension has been intensifying for six months around Ukraine with Russia in the spotlight for having concentrated tens of thousands of soldiers on the neighboring border former Soviet republic, from which the Crimean peninsula was annexed in 2014.

To try to find a way out of the crisis and discover the Moscow “mood”, the diplomatic advisers of the leaders of Russia and Ukraine, as well as of France and Germany, have held a meeting since noon in Paris.

The French presidency considered it “encouraging” that the Russians agreed to meet under the format of the Normandy Quartet, created in 2014 to seek a way out of the crisis, two days before a conversation between Putin and French President Emmanuel Macron.

However, discussions are announced difficult. During talks between Moscow and Washington, Russia reiterated a series of demands that it considers necessary to guarantee its security and that a European official described as “unacceptable”.

Russia especially demands that Ukraine’s eventual accession to NATO be rejected. A written response from the military alliance and the United States to the Russian demands will be sent to Moscow before the weekend, they told the AFP organization sources.

“destructive” idea

Russia has multiplied military maneuvers in recent weeks, including on the border with Ukraine, with exercises starting on Tuesday involving some 6,000 soldiers, fighters and bombers in the south and in Crimea.

Previously, Moscow announced naval maneuvers in the Atlantic, the Arctic, the Pacific and the Mediterranean, as well as joint exercises with Belarus, on the borders with the European Union.

Russia has also concentrated up to 100,000 soldiers on the Ukrainian borders.

Despite the alarm generated, the Ukrainian Foreign Minister, Dmytro Kuleba, considered on Wednesday that the number of Russian troops stationed on the border was still “insufficient” for them to launch a major attack.

The number “is important, it represents a threat to Ukraine” but “at the moment we speak, this number is insufficient for a large-scale offensive against Ukraine along the entire border,” Kuleba said during a virtual press conference.

The president of the United States, Joe Biden, warned on Tuesday of the “enormous consequences” that an attack would cause, a decision that would “change the world”, and advanced that he could “conceive” personal sanctions against Putin.

The Kremlin spokesman, Dmitri Peskov, who described as “destructive” for the relations with the United States That idea relativized its impact, since Russian law prohibits, in principle, its senior officials from having assets abroad.

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The United States placed some 8,500 soldiers on alert on Monday, who could join the NATO rapid reaction force of 40,000 soldiers. But the decision on its deployment has not yet been made.

NATO announced for its part that it was placing its forces on standby, sending ships and fighter planes to reinforce its defenses in Eastern Europe. Russia regards Alliance troops in its neighborhood as an existential threat.

Meanwhile, the Czech Republic announced that it was donating 4,000 artillery shells to the Ukrainian armed forces.

Another source of tension are the statements made by a senior official in the Russian Parliament, Andrei Turshak, who urged Russia to hand over weapons to the pro-Russian separatists from eastern Ukraine and accused Kiev of “preparing military aggression” against those rebellious regions. (I)