Urgent warning to Putin
Biden: US citizens should “now” leave Ukraine
2/11/2022, 7:11 am
It’s a new level of escalation. US President Biden calls on US citizens to leave Ukraine immediately. “Things could get crazy fast,” he says. He urgently warns the Kremlin not to harm US citizens in an attack on Ukraine.
US President Joe Biden has again sharpened the tone towards Russia in the Ukraine conflict. In an interview with the US broadcaster NBC, Biden called on US citizens in Ukraine to leave the country “now”.
“We are dealing with one of the largest armies in the world here,” Biden said in the interview, referring to the Russian troop accumulation on the border with eastern Ukraine. “It’s a very different situation and things could get crazy fast.” Biden warned his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin against harming US citizens. He hopes that if Putin is “foolish enough” to invade Ukraine, he is “smart enough not to do anything that negatively impacts American citizens.”
However, Biden reiterated that under no circumstances would he send US troops to Ukraine, even to rescue US citizens in the event of a Russian invasion. This would start “a world war,” he said, reiterating, “If Americans and Russians start shooting at each other, we’re in a whole different world.”
Biden’s statements represent a renewed escalation after weeks of shuttle diplomacy between Washington, Moscow, Kiev and various European capitals. In January, the US government recommended that its citizens leave Ukraine independently because of the “unpredictable” situation on the ground. At the time, she had also ordered the departure of the relatives of US diplomats in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev and warned her citizens against traveling to Russia.
According to Western sources, Russia has massed more than 100,000 soldiers on the border with Ukraine in recent months. In Ukraine, as in the West, this is fueling fears of a possible large-scale attack by Russia on the neighboring country. Russia rejects any plans of attack. At the same time, the Kremlin states that it feels threatened by NATO.
US General Staff calls Moscow
According to the US Department of Defense, US Chief of Staff Mark Milley called his Belarusian colleague Viktor Gulevich on Thursday to reduce the risk of “misjudgments” against the background of military maneuvers in the Brest region, near the Ukrainian border. According to the US, around 30,000 soldiers from Russia have been transferred to Belarus. Russia and Belarus launched military maneuvers near the Ukrainian border on Thursday.
According to Russian information, the exercise is about preparing the armed forces to repel “external aggression”. However, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Moscow of exerting “psychological pressure” on his country.
Russia had also sent six warships to naval exercises in the Black Sea and the neighboring Sea of Azov. Kiev condemned the presence of these ships as an “unprecedented” attempt to cut off Ukraine from both seas.
Meanwhile, the US military said on Thursday that long-range B-52 bombers had landed at Britain’s Fairfield Air Force Base in England, along with ground personnel. They should therefore take part in a “long” planned NATO exercise. In addition, four destroyers were said to have been deployed to NATO exercises last month in the area covered by the US Sixth Fleet, which also includes the Mediterranean Sea.