President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday that Russia had carried out missile strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure and the country's border guards, and that explosions had been heard in many cities. He said martial law had been declared across the country and that he had spoken by phone to the US president, Joe Biden
‘Has the world forgotten its mistakes of the 20th century?’ asks Volodymyr Zelenskiy as invasion looms
Just 20 minutes walk from the ornate Hotel Bayerischer Hof, where world leaders gathered this weekend for the Munich security conference, lies No 12 Arcisstrasse, the shuttered brown ornamental building known as the Führerbau.
On a cold grey Sunday morning, the building, now temporarily closed and in disrepair, has a forbidding air. Near the steps at the front is a small plaque with the bare inscription in German, Czech and Slovak: “In this building, on 29 September, 1938, the Munich agreement was signed, which led to the smashing of the Czechoslovak republic.”
Continue reading...Western governments have expressed solidarity with Volodymyr Zelenskiy but behind scenes there has been exasperation
When Volodymyr Zelenskiy sought to become Ukraine’s president he stood on a platform of peace. Zelenskiy promised to sit down with Vladimir Putin and to reach a deal with Russia. He would end the unpopular war in the east and concentrate on important domestic reforms. These included ridding the country of corruption and oligarchs.
The plan didn’t work out. Nearly three years after winning a landslide victory, Zelenskiy is a president on the brink of war. About 190,000 Russian troops are poised on Ukraine’s borders. The US president, Joe Biden, has warned of an attack on Kyiv. A Kremlin military offensive – whether full-scale or more limited in scope – seems likely, possibly within hours or days.
Continue reading...The Ukrainian president joked that Russians have hacked his headset after translations stopped working during a discussion at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday. Speaking to Christaine Amanpour, Volodymyr Zelenskiy can be seen fiddling with his headset before he jokingly says: ‘I think, cyber-attack.’
Zelenskiy travelled to Munich to deliver a rallying call to the west, despite US warnings that Russia might exploit his absence to topple him before he returns to Kyiv.
Continue reading...Ukraine's president has quashed suggestions by the country’s ambassador to Britain that it could drop its bid to join Nato to avoid war with Russia. Speaking at a press conference, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said: 'We would like Nato membership. It would ensure our security, our territorial sovereignty'
Continue reading...Analysis: it is still unclear how far Russian president is willing to go to achieve his Ukraine goals
Almost a year ago, Russia began moving forces from Siberia and other regions to the border with Ukraine. With more than half of its land forces now poised for an attack, whether or not there will be a war with Ukraine hinges on the decision of Vladimir Putin, whose options range from a large-scale assault to a decision to hold his troops back or ultimately send them home.
At stake is a potentially devastating conflict, sanctions and economic hardship, and a verdict on the legacy of Putin, who has broadcast his decision to engage in brinksmanship with the west, saying that the tensions have a “definite effect” and should be maintained “as long as possible”.
Continue reading...Olaf Scholz will make economic case for peace to defuse ‘extremely dangerous’ situation in Ukraine
Olaf Scholz will use his trip to Moscow on Tuesday to press home the economic cost of a Russian invasion of Ukraine, German government sources have said in what some European leaders fear could be a last opportunity to defuse the “extremely dangerous” situation on the border between the two eastern countries.
The German chancellor, who has faced criticism at home for cutting a low-key profile in the diplomatic effort around the military buildup on the Ukrainian border until now, first arrives in Kyiv on Monday as US intelligence over the weekend claimed that Russia had accelerated plans for an invasion and could move troops across the border as soon as Wednesday, before the end of the Winter Olympics on 20 February.
Continue reading...‘Risk of something going down like a mid-air collision, or a trigger-happy Russian or American, can really escalate things quickly’
The unprecedented Russian military encirclement of Ukraine has not only brought closer the prospect of a devastating war in that country, it has also raised the risks of triggering an unintended wider conflict.
The US and Nato have been adamant that their troops will not enter Ukraine no matter what happens, and the Pentagon has pulled out the 160 national guard soldiers who were acting as military advisers.
Continue reading...Warnings of an imminent Russian invasion do not help Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said in a press conference on 12 February.
Zelenskiy said he has 'a lot of information' that he would analyse without sowing panic as countries, including the UK and the US, issued warnings for their citizens to leave Ukraine.
Tensions have been mounting for weeks during the Russian military buildup near its ex-Soviet neighbour
Analysis: As Macron tries to revive 2015 agreement, Ukraine believes it is impossible to fulfil as it could hand power to Russia
In the often acrimonious back-and-forth between Russia and Ukraine in recent years, “fulfilling Minsk” has become something of a meaningless mantra: all sides agree to abide by the 2015 Minsk accords in public, but neither has any real intention of implementing the provisions of the agreement.
Yet in his intensive peacemaking efforts this week, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, appears to be pinning his hopes on a renewed attempt to breathe life into the seven-year-old agreement.
Continue reading...Volodymyr Zelenskiy hosts meeting in Kyiv amid confusion over French claims of private agreement with Putin
Emmanuel Macron has held talks with Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in Kyiv amid confusion over French claims that Russia has privately agreed not to carry out any new “military initiatives”.
French officials made the suggestion after six hours of talks late on Monday between Macron and Vladimir Putin. The officials, speaking anonymously, said Putin had agreed to pull Russian troops out of Belarus once military exercises conclude later this month.
Continue reading...Tub-thumping talk of all-out war in Ukraine seems overblown but the White House knows the fledgling Sino-Russian axis is a real threat, in Taiwan and elsewhere
If, as seems increasingly probable, Russia decides not to launch an all-out invasion of Ukraine, tub-thumping US and British politicians who have spent weeks scaring the public with loose talk of looming Armageddon will have some explaining to do.
The military build-up directed by Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, is real enough. But suspicion grows that the actual as opposed to the hypothetical threat of a large-scale conventional attack is being mis-read, misinterpreted, over-estimated or deliberately exaggerated.
Continue reading...PM joins Volodymyr Zelenskiy to spell out consequences of Russian aggression and declare UK will be judged by the level of its support
A Russian invasion of Ukraine would end in a humanitarian, political and military disaster for Russia and the world, Boris Johnson has warned as he stood alongside the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in Kyiv, saying the UK would be judged by the level of help it gave to Ukraine.
On a flying visit to the Ukrainian capital, he denied the US and the UK were exaggerating the scale of the Russian threat, saying they were not trying to “big up” the intelligence. “The grim reality” was that Russian troops were “massing on Ukraine’s border. This is a clear and present danger,” he said, addingthat the troop concentration was “perhaps the biggest demonstration of hostility to Ukraine in our lifetimes”, saying it dwarfed the Russian forces mounted before the invasion in 2014.
Continue reading...US president announces small troop deployment to eastern Europe amid fears of invasion
Kyiv has urged the west to remain “vigilant and firm” in its talks with Russia, as Joe Biden announced a small troop deployment to eastern Europe amid fears Moscow could invade Ukraine.
Washington’s top defence officials warned on Friday that the Kremlin had massed enough troops and hardware at the border to threaten the whole of Ukraine, but called for further diplomatic efforts to avert a “horrific” conflict.
Continue reading...French, German, Russian and Ukrainian diplomats are meeting in Paris in the latest effort to de-escalate the crisis
The Normandy format is an informal forum that was set up by French, German, Russian and Ukrainian diplomats in 2014, after Russia kickstarted a separatist conflict in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region. It takes its name from the Normandy landings in the second world war. The first meeting took place in Normandy on the margins of the ceremony to mark the 70th anniversary of the allied landings.
Continue reading...Treasury imposes sanctions on four current and former Ukraine government officials it says involved in alleged conspiracy
The US has alleged that Russian intelligence is recruiting current and former Ukrainian government officials to take over the government in Kyiv and cooperate with a Russian occupying force.
The US Treasury on Thursday imposed sanctions on two Ukrainian members of parliament and two former officials it said were involved in the alleged conspiracy, which involved discrediting the current government of the president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
Continue reading...US president alarms government in Kyiv by saying Nato was divided on how to respond to ‘minor incursion’
Joe Biden has said he thinks Russia will attack Ukraine, warning that Moscow would face a “stiff price”, but he admitted Nato was divided on how to respond if there is only a “minor incursion”.
The White House was forced to issue a hasty clarification to that last point, saying that any movement of Russian forces over the border would be treated as invasion.
Continue reading...Russia is “very likely” to invade Ukraine and might only be deterred by “enormous sanctions”, the chair of the US House intelligence committee said on Sunday.
Adam Schiff also said an invasion could backfire on Moscow, by drawing more countries into the Nato military alliance.
Continue reading...Olaf Scholz faces calls from some EU leaders to threaten Moscow with termination of Nord Stream 2
Germany’s new chancellor, Olaf Scholz, faced pressure from fellow leaders at his first EU summit to include the future of Nord Stream 2 as part of the “massive price” to be paid in the event of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Arriving in Brussels, Scholz, who replaced Angela Merkel last week, said his government was committed to protecting Europe’s borders, as Nato warned that the number of Russian troops being mobilised by the Kremlin was continuing to grow.
Continue reading...Official says Washington would also impose economic measures in warning to Moscow on eve of talks between Biden and Putin
The US has said it would send reinforcements to Nato’s eastern flank in response to a Russian invasion of Ukraine, as well as imposing severe new economic measures, in a warning to Moscow on the eve of talks between Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin.
Biden will also make clear to Putin that the US will not rule out future Ukrainian membership of Nato, as the Russian leader has demanded, a senior US official said.
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