Vladimir Putin Oversees Military Exercises Amid Ukraine Attack Fears

Russian President Vladimir Putin launched large-scale military exercises on Saturday, hours after the United States warned it was certain of an imminent invasion of Ukraine, where clashes between Kiev and pro-Russian separatists in the east are on the rise.

Despite this increasingly tense situation at the front, which this Saturday cost the life of a soldier from Ukraineits president Volodimir Zelenski travels to Germany to participate in the Munich Security Conference and receive support from the West.

“As a result of a shelling, a Ukrainian soldier was fatally wounded by a shell splinter,” military authorities in eastern Ukraine.

The armed forces of Ukraine and the pro-Russian separatists once again accused each other of new attacks and of violating the ceasefire in that region. The Kiev army reported 66 armed incidents as of 7 a.m. Saturday (0400 GMT), a particularly high number, while rebels in the separatist stronghold of Donetsk called the situation “critical.”

Observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) who monitor this open conflict since 2014 warned on Saturday of a “drastic increase” in violations of the ceasefire.

According to Kyiv, “The armed forces control the situation and continue to carry out their mission to repel and contain the armed aggression of the Russian Federation.”

For their part, the leaders of the separatist regions of Donetsk and Lugansk, where the front line that divides Ukraine is located, ordered a general mobilization this Saturday, after announcing the evacuation of civilians on Friday.

Russia denies any involvement in the conflict in eastern Ukraine and describes it as an internal matter of that country.

He also assures that he has no intention of attacking his pro-Western neighbor, but demands security guarantees such as the withdrawal of NATO from Eastern Europe and a brake on its enlargement, which the West rejects.

Despite announcements of Russian troop withdrawals from the border, US President Joe Biden said on Friday that he was “convinced” that Putin had decided to invade Ukraine and that the multiplication of incidents in the east of that country seeks to create a “false justification” to launch their attack in the coming week or days.

But as long as there is no invasion, diplomacy is always a possibility Biden said announcing a meeting between his Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov next Thursday.

“Destabilization Campaign”

As announced the day before, Vladimir Putin launched strategic military exercises on Saturday that include launches of ballistic and cruise missiles capable of carrying nuclear payloads, the Kremlin said.

Russian news agencies RIA Novosti and Interfax quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov to confirm the start of the maneuvers, which are followed from Moscow by Putin and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.

These exercises mobilize forces from the Southern military district, aerospace forces, Northern and Black Sea fleets, as well as “strategic forces”. The latter are equipped with missiles with an intercontinental range, strategic bombers, submarines, ships and naval aviation equipped with conventional submarine missiles.

Washington estimates that Russia It has 190,000 troops on the borders and the territory of Ukrainecounting the separatist rebel forces.

The Pentagon said on Friday that 40-50% of Russian troops are “in attack position” and that the incidents on the front line are part of “a campaign to destabilize Ukraine” prior to an invasion.

Russia has not disclosed the number of soldiers deployed on the borders with Ukraine or in the joint maneuvers with Belarus.

“Rewrite the rules”

The West has unanimously pledged devastating economic sanctions to Russia if it attacks Ukraine. They would make Russia a “pariah,” a US official said on Friday.

But Vladimir Putin downplayed these warnings: “Sanctions will be introduced no matter what. Whether there is a reason or not, they will find one because their goal is to stop the development of Russia”, he indicated.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg reaffirmed this Saturday the “unfailing” commitment of the members of the Atlantic Alliance to protect each other, and assured Russia that it will only have “more NATO” if it seeks to have “less NATO”.

“Moscow tries to turn history back and recreate its sphere of influence”Stoltenberg charged in a speech at the Munich Conference.

Along the same lines, the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said that Russia has set out to “undermine” the European security architecture and is trying to “rewrite the rules of international order.”

Amid the frantic contacts to seek a de-escalation, Putin will hold a telephone conversation on Sunday with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron.

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