What Conflict Continues as Rusia Moves to Donate Again
'You are non our enemy,' Biden tells the Russian people in a voice communication from the White House.
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WASHINGTON — President Biden said Tuesday that American officials had non verified Russia'south claim that it is pulling some troops back from Ukraine's edge, proverb that Russian forces remain "very much in a threatening position" and that "an invasion remains distinctly possible."
Speaking from the Eastward Room of the White House, Mr. Biden vowed to "give the affairs every chance" to prevent a Russian invasion. Only he too promised not to "cede basic principles" co-ordinate countries the right to determine the shape of their own borders.
The president said he had no intention of sending American troops to fight in Ukraine, which is not a member of the NATO alliance, just he noted that the U.s.a. has provided armed services equipment, intelligence and preparation to Ukraine's regime as its prepares for whatsoever invasion.
He also vowed to stand by NATO countries in the outcome that Russian federation — or any other nation — attacks the alliance.
"The U.s. will defend every inch of NATO territory with the full force of American ability," he said. "An set on against one NATO land is an set on confronting all of us. "
Mr. Biden'southward remarks came hours after Russia'south president, Vladimir Five. Putin, said his land had decided to "partially pull dorsum troops," and Russian war machine officials signaled that some of the forces on the border with Ukraine had been sent back to their garrisons.
American officials and their counterparts in other European countries have expressed skepticism about the Russian troop movements, saying the majority of Mr. Putin'southward troop deployment remains poised to invade Ukraine quickly.
Jens Stoltenberg, NATO's secretary general, said members of the alliance "take not seen any sign of de-escalation." Russian federation has moved forces effectually before while leaving heavy weapons in place, Mr. Stoltenberg noted.
On Tuesday, Mr. Biden did not repeat the recent assessments from some assistants officials that a Russian invasion was imminent. But his comments did not reflect a modify in his administration'southward overall judgment virtually the possibility that Russian federation will assault, White House officials stressed.
Mr. Biden has argued that agreement amid European allies on a ready of harsh sanctions is the best way to force Mr. Putin to accept diplomacy instead of an invasion.
"The Us and NATO are not a threat to Russia," Mr. Biden said. "Ukraine is non a threat to Russia. Neither the U.South. or NATO have missiles in Ukraine. Nosotros do not, do not have plans to put them at that place likewise. We're not targeting people of Russia. We practice not seek to destabilize Russia. To the citizens of Russia. Yous are not our enemy."
Mr. Biden had a warning for Americans, too.
He said a Russian invasion that triggered severe economical sanctions could cause oil prices to ascent, making it more difficult for the administration to fight the already damaging inflation in the United States.
"I will not pretend this will be painless," he said.
Still, the president warned Mr. Putin that Russia'south economy will endure even more if he decides to invade. The president specifically vowed to stop a proposed Russian natural gas pipeline that would serve Europe.
"When it comes to Nord Stream 2 pipeline that would bring natural gas from Russian federation to Deutschland, if Russia further invades Ukraine, it will not happen," Mr. Biden said.
Earlier in the 24-hour interval, Mr. Putin said after a face-to-face meeting with Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany that Russia would continue pushing for its central demands: a rollback of NATO presence in Eastern Europe and a guarantee that Ukraine would not bring together the alliance.
Mr. Scholz suggested later on the meeting that NATO might formally say that Ukraine'due south membership in NATO "is not on the agenda" every bit a way of defusing the tensions.
After meeting with Germany's leader, Putin says some Russian troops will return to their bases.
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MOSCOW — President Vladimir V. Putin said Tuesday that Russia had decided "to partially pull back troops," and the Russian Defence force Ministry announced that some forces from military districts adjoining Ukraine were being sent back to their garrisons, a sign that Moscow might be stepping away from the threat of an invasion.
The announcement was the strongest betoken yet that Russia might exist trying to de-escalate the military collision almost the Ukrainian border, only information technology was far from articulate that the threat of war has passed. Military analysts warned that information technology was too early on to brand firm conclusions nearly any troop drawdown without more information.
Only a day earlier, American officials, closing the U.S. Diplomatic mission in Kyiv, warned that an invasion appeared imminent. President Biden, addressing the situation in Ukraine on Tuesday afternoon from the E Room of the White Business firm, said "an invasion remains distinctly possible."
Earlier in the day, speaking at the Kremlin alongside Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany, Mr. Putin said Russia would go on pushing for its fundamental demands of a rollback of the NATO presence in Eastern Europe and a guarantee that Ukraine never join the brotherhood.
"Nosotros are too gear up to continue on the negotiating rail, only all these questions, as has been said before, must be viewed comprehensively," Mr. Putin said.
Later on, in a conference with German reporters, Mr. Scholz voiced frustration that the collision continues, given that Ukraine's prospective NATO membership — something the Kremlin calls a red line — is "not on the agenda." NATO countries have fabricated articulate it would be years before Ukraine was considered, and Ukraine's leader this week hinted the country's membership aspiration could be up for negotiation.
"Anybody must stride back a fleck here and make it clear to themselves that we just tin't have a possible military conflict over a question that is non on the agenda," Mr. Scholz said.
Since "all involved" know that to be true, he added, "information technology is a question of leadership power for all involved — in Russia, in Ukraine, in NATO — to make sure that nosotros don't have an cool state of affairs."
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Despite Mr. Putin's announcement of a pullback in troops, a Russian Defense Ministry building spokesman, Igor Konashenkov, said that some military exercises that have raised fears of an attack confronting Ukraine — including in Belarus and in the Blackness Body of water — would continue.
U.S. officials said they were still assessing Russian federation'southward troop announcement, and the NATO secretarial assistant general, Jens Stoltenberg, said that members of the alliance "have not seen any sign of de-escalation." Russia has moved forces around before while leaving heavy weapons in identify, Mr. Stoltenberg noted.
Still, Mr. Putin's comments added to signs that Moscow is willing to pursue its objectives through negotiation, rather than launch immediate war machine action. When asked about how Russia would act adjacent, Mr. Putin responded with a slight grin: "According to the plan."
Only the outcome, he said, "does not only depend on united states."
"We intend to and will strive to reach understanding with our partners on the questions that we posed, in gild to solve them past taking a diplomatic path," Mr. Putin said.
Moscow added some leverage to any talks when lawmakers in the Kremlin-backed lower house of Parliament asked Mr. Putin on Tuesday to recognize breakaway states in eastern Ukraine equally independent. That raised fears that Russia could use such recognition to move more than of its military into the areas.
Mr. Putin indicated at the news briefing that he would not immediately recognize their independence.
The troops described as being pulled back are from the military districts closest to Ukraine, meaning they would remain relatively close to the country even if they are pulled back to their bases. The statement indicated that troops that accept arrived in the region from farther away — Siberia and Russian federation's Far East — would remain deployed well-nigh Ukraine for at present.
Ukraine'due south strange minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said that in that location was reason to be skeptical of Moscow'south statements. "When we see the withdrawal, we will believe in de-escalation," he told reporters during a video briefing from Kyiv.
Is a troop drawdown meaningful? It is too early on to tell, analysts warn.
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Military machine analysts circumspection that information technology is as well early on to brand business firm conclusions about a possible drawdown of Russian forces without more information about which units are existence sent back to their bases.
The Russian Defence Ministry building announced just a withdrawal of units from Russian federation's Western and Southern Armed forces Districts. Those districts are the closest to Ukraine and then the troops could exist easily redeployed to the border.
Units from the Key and Eastern Military machine Districts, which are some of Russia's most advanced, remain deployed, and in recent days have arrayed themselves in attack formations, some inside a few dozen miles of Ukraine's border, according to satellite imagery. In the last calendar week, Russia has too deployed a number of attack helicopters and fighter jets in the vicinity of Ukraine, an indication, war machine analysts said, that the buildup, at least in some regions, continues.
"Yesterday and the mean solar day before, stuff was arriving in Belgorod — near the edge — moving into a staging position," said Rob Lee, a U.South. Marine Corps veteran and Ph.D. candidate at King'south College in London, who is a Russian armed forces expert. "I wouldn't read too much into this yet."
Mr. Lee and others noted that Russia has in the past announced troop withdrawals only to leave weaponry equipment in place for easy redeployment.
That is what Russia's defense force government minister, Sergei K. Shoigu, did after a similar buildup near Ukraine concluding Apr, besides as after big military exercises in tardily summer. The tactic allowed Russia to more rapidly build up its forces in the region starting in effectually Oct.
"What I'thou concerned about is that they are playing shell games once more, so they will withdraw and leave equipment in random places once again," said Dara Massicot, a senior policy researcher at the RAND Corporation.
Even if Russia does pull dorsum a pregnant number of units from the Western and Southern Military Districts, information technology will still take sufficient forces to launch serious military incursions, particularly from the north in the management of the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, equally well as from the Crimean Peninsula. There, Russia has built upwards a massive troop presence that includes attack aircraft and rapid response special forces and airborne units, say Western and Ukrainian armed forces officials and independent analysts.
The Russian Navy solitary has sufficient forces deployed in the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to mount a pregnant amphibious assault on the Ukrainian coast, including perhaps 2,000 troops and nearly 200 tanks and armored vehicles loaded onto six large landing arts and crafts deployed from Russia's Baltic and Northern Fleets.
Just because the Russian defence force ministry building "says they're going back to their base of operations, I'll believe information technology when I see it," said Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, the former commander of the U.S. Army in Europe.
At the moment, General Hodges said, there is not sufficient information to draw any conclusions about the significance of the defense ministry's troop withdrawal statement.
"Are they being replaced?" he said. "Is this a rotation? It would be interesting to know what unit or units are being pulled dorsum. Peradventure these are the ones that accept been in that location for the longest in the cold weather."
A hack of the Defense Ministry, army and country banks was the largest of its kind in Ukraine's history.
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Inside Ukraine'due south Cybercommand Heart, Hours Before Attack
A day before Ukraine announced its Defense Ministry and cyberbanking servers had been hacked, our video squad toured the land's Cybercommand Heart, where officials have been preparing for this scenario for years.
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Head of the NCSCC Support Service of the NSDC Staff Serhiy Prokopenko 00:12:38:05 00:12:44:06these are cyber attacks, every bit I said, on the essential facilities 00:12:44:12 00:12:47:04and the state authorities. 00:12:47:23 00:12:fifty:21The goal of the first ones is destabilisation. 00:12:55:06 00:13:02:13So if we empathise, permit's say, that banking concern services are disabled,00:13:xiv:sixteen 00:13:18:16and if you cannot pay for fuel, groceries, 00:13:19:07 00:xiii:24:06this immediately volition lead to public reaction. 00:thirteen:25:16 00:13:30:11And if it accompanied with attacking the country websites, 00:xiii:31:01 00:13:34:01then the citizens cannot receive the data. 00:14:00:02 00:14:03:01That's why the cyber attack, the hybrid attack 00:14:05:21 00:14:09:13may crusade that every bit the side by side step 00:14:09:21 00:14:xvi:21the club is shocked, the land allegedly does not control the situation 00:14:16:23 00:14:17:23inside Ukraine, 00:14:xviii:xvi 00:fourteen:20:08the state authorities, 00:14:20:12 00:14:27:01and consequently, this is a reason to invade with forces.
KYIV, Ukraine — A top Ukrainian cybersecurity official said on Wednesday that a cyberattack against the websites of Ukraine's defense ministry building and army, as well every bit the interfaces of the country'due south two largest banks on Tuesday, was the largest assault of its kind in the country'due south history and "bore traces of foreign intelligence services."
Ukraine's minister of digital transformation, Mykhailo Fedorov, said that "vectors of attacks were organized from different countries."
"It is clear that it was prepared in advance, and the central goal of this attack is to destabilize, to sow panic, to exercise everything to create a certain anarchy in the deportment of Ukrainians in our country," he told a news conference in Kyiv.
The announcement came equally Russian forces were gathered on Ukraine'south northern, eastern and southern borders, a forcefulness President Biden estimated Tuesday as approximately 150,000 soldiers.
Simply officials are also concerned that Russia might seek to destabilize the state in other ways, including through cyberwarfare.
The websites and banks targeted on Tuesday evening were hit with a distributed deprival-of-service attack, or DDoS, during which hackers flood the servers hosting a website until it becomes overloaded and shuts downward.
While a full investigation is underway, all signs pointed to Russia, said Ilya Vityuk, the Head of the Ukrainian Intelligence Bureau'south Cyber Security Department.
"We know today that, unfortunately, the only state that is interested in such strikes on our country, peculiarly against the background of mass panic over a possible war machine invasion is, unfortunately, the Russian Federation," he said during the news briefing.
He added that the attack likely cost "millions of dollars" to execute it, far beyond the capabilities of private hackers or groups.
"Such attacks are normally perpetrated by countries," he said. "Such attacks need infrastructure."
Moscow denied responsibility for the DDoS assault. "We know nothing about it, but we are not surprised that Ukraine is continuing to blame Russia for everything," Kremlin spokesman Dmitri S. Peskov told journalists. "Russian federation has naught to practice with any DDoS attacks."
Mr. Vityuk said that the assault bore similarities to a mid January assail in which hackers brought downwards dozens of Ukrainian government websites, including Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Diplomacy.
At the time, a bulletin on the Ministry of Strange Diplomacy warned: "Ukrainians! All your personal data was uploaded to the internet. All data on the computer is being destroyed. All information about yous became public. Be afraid and wait the worst."
On Tuesday, clients of the land-owned PrivatBank and Oschadbank began to complain about difficulties using teller machines and mobile phone applications. The banks confirmed the attack, but said the funds in users' accounts had not been affected, though users said they had been temporarily unable to withdraw money or use their credit cards. Some clients of the banks were worried, as their bank balances appeared drained. By Tuesday evening that nigh services had been restored.
Pavlo Kukhta, an adviser to Ukraine'southward free energy minister, said in an interview that the hackers were perchance preparing for a larger attack, which could target the country's "vulnerable" ability grid.
"The goal is quite simple: to sow panic, show what they are capable of, test the systems and see if they are vulnerable," he said. "They are poking around and looking for weaknesses."
Every bit of Midweek evening, the DDoS attack, which began at 3 p.chiliad. Kyiv time on Tuesday, had been going on for more than 24 hours, Ukraine's Defense Ministry said. Ukrainian cybersecurity officials "have managed to significantly reduce the level of harmful traffic," said Victor Zhora of the Center for Strategic Communications and Data Security, a government bureau established to counter Russian disinformation.
Ukraine's intelligence agency, the SBU, said Wednesday information technology had neutralized "more than 2,200 cyber attacks on state authorities and critical infrastructure in Ukraine" last year.
According to U.South. authorities assessments, some of the most drastic cyberattacks in the by decade were attributed to Russian actions in Ukraine — and and so replicated elsewhere.
For case, a Russian armed services spyware strain kickoff identified in a hack against Ukraine's Central Elections Commission in 2014 was found in the server of the Democratic National Committee in the Usa in 2016. The following year, attacks called NotPetya started in Ukraine and later spread around the globe, causing some $1 billion in damage.
As a bipartisan push for sanctions against Russia stalls in Congress, Republicans present their ain bill.
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WASHINGTON — A bipartisan effort to authorize a bruising fix of sanctions against Moscow sputtered on Capitol Loma on Tuesday, equally lawmakers conceded that they were unlikely to accomplish agreement on whatsoever new legislation and Republicans introduced their own bill.
What began terminal month as an endeavour to present a unified forepart on Capitol Colina in favor of pressing the Biden administration to take a tougher stance against Russia has faltered amid disagreements between Democrats and Republicans over simply how far to go.
Republicans have pressed for the imposition of sanctions earlier any invasion of Ukraine. Simply that, Democrats and the Biden assistants have argued, would mean the loss of crucial negotiating leverage that might stave off a armed services incursion.
By Tuesday, it appeared that the simply bipartisan message Congress would be able to muster in the brusk term was a nonbinding articulation argument of support for Ukraine and an admonition to Russia not to invade.
In a statement signed by the Senate majority and minority leaders, Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York, and Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, lawmakers pledged to "fully support the immediate imposition of strong, robust, and constructive sanctions on Russia" in the event Moscow authorized an invasion.
"Make no fault: the United States Senate stands with the people of Ukraine and our NATO allies and partners most threatened by Russian aggression," the senators said. "Our troops stand up ready to reinforce the defenses of our Eastern European allies and we are prepared to respond decisively to Russian efforts to undermine the security of the United states at home and abroad."
In another sign that bipartisan negotiations were collapsing, Senator Jim Risch of Idaho, the top Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, introduced his ain sanctions legislation. Information technology would target allies of the Russian president, Vladimir 5. Putin, and Russian banks alee of an invasion and impose secondary sanctions in the event Moscow crosses the edge. The legislation, co-sponsored by more than 30 Senate Republicans, would too provide the Ukrainian government with an boosted $500 meg in military financing and authorize President Biden to lend and lease military equipment to Ukraine.
"Rather than just restating authorities the president already has," Mr. Risch said, the bill "takes immediate activity to permanently stop Nord Stream 2, sends a powerful deterrent bulletin, imposes heavy economic and armed services costs on Russia, strengthens U.S. allies and partners, and supports Ukraine via new authorities, funds, and tools."
House Republicans introduced a parallel bill on Tuesday evening. Information technology would likewise deny the export of semiconductor technology to Russian federation.
Less than an hour after Senate Republicans unveiled their legislation, the chairman of the Senate Strange Relations Committee, Bob Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey, denounced the move as "partisan posturing." He said the G.O.P. proposal was "largely a reflection of what Democrats had already agreed to."
Zelensky expresses anger at wealthy Ukrainians who left by private jet.
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KYIV, Ukraine — An exodus of wealthy Ukrainians by private jet in recent days as the threat of a Russian invasion looms has drawn criticism from the country's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, who has urged them to return quickly.
Mr. Zelensky complained on Mon that the departure of at to the lowest degree some members of the Ukrainian elite on individual and chartered airplane flights undermined his appeals to Ukrainians to remain calm and avoid panic. "I personally would like to ask them to render to the country within 24 hours," Mr. Zelensky said at a news conference.
Mr. Zelensky said that 30 private planes had flown out of Ukraine as of Monday. Ukrayinska Pravda, a Ukrainian news outlet, counted 20 leaving over the weekend. In addition to businessmen, at least 23 members of the Ukrainian Parliament had left, the outlet reported.
Mr. Zelensky also suggested that the politicians return. To demonstrate that his family remains in Kyiv, Mr. Zelensky posted a video on Valentine's 24-hour interval on Monday, hugging his wife and saying they were at home in Ukraine.
Ukraine's richest human being, Rinat Akhmetov, a steel and coal tycoon, left the land at the terminate of January. After the president publicly objected to the departures by the wealthy, a spokesperson for Mr. Akhmetov said on Tuesday that the tycoon would return on Wednesday.
Ane of the Parliament members who left, Vadym Novynsky, was back in Kyiv as of Tuesday. He said he had attended a relative'southward altogether party in Germany, and dismissed the idea that he had left considering of the warnings from the United States that Russian federation might assault Ukraine.
"I do not coordinate my trips with American officials," Mr. Novynsky said.
The president and his ministers, in nearly every public appearance, accept emphasized the need to avoid panic.
In response to the U.Due south. assessment that military activeness could come up as soon as Wed, Mr. Zelensky, declared the day a new holiday to be called the Mean solar day of Unity. The day is intended to commemorate Ukraine's "resilience in the confront of growing hybrid threats, information and propaganda, moral and psychological pressure on the public consciousness."
In Moscow, Germany's chancellor makes the case for diplomacy — merely pulls no punches
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After meeting with President Vladimir Five. Putin of Russian federation on Tuesday, Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Frg made an unusually impassioned appeal for more than diplomacy in the collision with Russian federation over Ukraine, saying that information technology was "our damned duty" to prevent state of war in Europe.
But Mr. Scholz too pulled no punches in criticizing Moscow for bullying critics at dwelling house and abroad.
The German leader'due south talks with Mr. Putin came after a week of frenzied affairs, which was capped past the United states closing its embassy in Kyiv on Monday every bit it warned of an imminent Russian invasion. Then on Tuesday, Russia fabricated a surprise declaration about a partial troop withdrawal from the Ukrainian border.
Even as many remained skeptical nigh the withdrawal and waited to see independent confirmation of it, Mr. Scholz used a articulation news conference with Mr. Putin to depict it as a "good sign."
"Everyone at present has to act courageously and responsibly," the chancellor said, standing several meters away from Mr. Putin. "For my generation, war in Europe has get unthinkable. And we have to make sure it stays that way. It is our damned duty and responsibility as heads of state and government to prevent a state of war escalating in Europe."
Information technology was an uncharacteristically forceful performance past the new German chancellor, who has been in office for only ii months and was conspicuously absent in the early rounds of public diplomacy. Over the past week, he has met with other Western leaders almost every day.
The iii-hour meeting with Mr. Putin on Tuesday in Moscow was the showtime one-to-one talk between the ii leaders.
At the news conference later, Mr. Scholz advocated a return to straight dialogue and said Germany and its allies in the European Matrimony and in NATO stood ready to take "concrete steps to improve common or, even meliorate, mutual security."
But he likewise laid down some cerise lines, declaring that Ukraine's territorial integrity and sovereignty "are nonnegotiable for the states."
For the first time since December, Mr. Scholz as well publicly mentioned the name of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline that connects Russia with Deutschland under the Baltic Sea, though he yet stopped short of explicitly maxim that it would be abandoned in the event of an invasion. The pipeline, non withal operational, would make Frg more dependent on Russia and deprive Ukraine of transit fees.
"Regarding the pipeline, everyone knows what's going on," Mr. Scholz said, vowing "far-reaching consequences" in the issue of an invasion.
Mr. Scholz was equally directly in addressing Mr. Putin'due south silencing of critics at home, non least Aleksei A. Navalny, the most prominent challenger to Mr. Putin'southward rule, who has accused Mr. Putin of ordering his security agencies to assassinate him and is serving a prison sentence. Mr. Navalny's conviction "is not compatible with the rule of law," Mr. Scholz said.
Mr. Scholz also noted the closure of Memorial, Russia'south oldest human rights group, and urged Mr. Putin to allow it to resume its work.
When Mr. Putin fabricated unsupported allegations about genocide in the Donbass region of Ukraine and drew a comparison to the situation that prompted NATO'south intervention in Bosnia in 1992, Mr. Scholz swiftly dismissed the illustration, saying the events in the sometime Yugoslavia had been "different."
"There was a risk of genocide and it had to be prevented," he said.
While he was forthright about his differences with Mr. Putin, Mr. Scholz kept returning to the theme of affairs, casting the current crunch over Ukraine and the most serious threat to peace Europe had faced in generations.
"For us Germans, but also for all Europeans, it is clear that sustainable security cannot be achieved against Russia — simply with Russia," Mr. Scholz said. He added: "We must not end upwards in a dead finish. That would be a misfortune for all of us."
Russian lawmakers ask for recognition of separatist territories, adding to leverage over Ukraine.
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In a sign that Russia was prepared to keep the pressure on Ukraine despite reportedly pulling back some troops from border areas, its Kremlin-controlled lower house of Parliament, the Land Duma, passed a resolution on Tuesday requesting that President Vladimir V. Putin recognize the Russian-backed separatist territories in Ukraine'due south east equally independent states.
Such a movement would correspond Russia'south abandonment of the 2015 peace program for those territories, and could raise the hazard of warfare between Russia and Ukraine. The separatists claim all of Ukraine's Donetsk and Luhansk regions as their territory, just control only about i-tertiary of those lands.
Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of the Duma, said the resolution would be signed and transmitted to Mr. Putin "without delay."
The resolution in effect gives Mr. Putin some other bargaining scrap in his talks with Western leaders and another point of leverage over Ukraine. In a news conference with Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany on Tuesday, Mr. Putin repeated false claims that Ukraine is carrying out a "genocide" against Russian speakers in the region, known equally the Donbas, but indicated that he would non immediately recognize the territories' independence.
Instead, Mr. Putin said that he would go along pushing for implementation of the Minsk peace accords negotiated past Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France in 2015. In their Russian interpretation, the accords would in event rule out NATO membership for Ukraine by assuasive Russian-backed proxies in eastern Ukraine to veto strange-policy decisions.
Western diplomats dispute Russian federation'due south interpretation of the accords, but they run into their implementation equally 1 way out of the current crisis.
"We must exercise everything to solve the problems of the Donbas, only we must practise this, equally the federal chancellor said, past working from the not fully realized possibilities of the implementation of the Minsk agreements," Mr. Putin said, referring to Mr. Scholz.
Jens Stoltenberg, NATO's secretary general, said that if Russian federation did recognize Donetsk and Luhansk it would exist "a blatant violation of Ukrainian sovereignty once again," as well every bit a violation of international law and of the Minsk agreement.
"There is no dubiety that Donetsk and Luhansk are part of Ukraine within internationally recognized borders," Mr. Stoltenberg told reporters in Brussels.
U.S. artillery shipped to Ukraine are unlikely to stop a Russian invasion.
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WASHINGTON — President Biden has ruled out sending U.South. troops to fight in Ukraine, but American-made weapons are already there in force and more could exist on the mode. How constructive they would be in turning dorsum a Russian invasion is another question.
Since 2014, the United States has committed more than $2.7 billion in security assistance to Ukraine, according to the Pentagon, including a $200 million package in December comprising equipment like Javelin and other anti-armor systems, grenade launchers, big quantities of artillery, mortars and small-scale-arms ammunition.
Merely armed services experts say that with 130,000 troops on three sides of Ukraine, the Russian Regular army could quickly overwhelm the Ukrainian military, even ane that is backed by the United States and its European allies. Ukrainian forces stretched thin by defending multiple borders would have to prioritize which units received advanced weaponry and extra ammunition.
Ukrainian troops — trained in recent years by U.South. Army Green Berets and other NATO special forces, and ameliorate equipped than in Russian federation's last invasion in 2014 — would likely bloody advancing Russian troops. But a long-term Ukrainian strategy, American officials said, would be to mount a guerrilla insurgency supported by the West that could bog down the Russian war machine for years.
"All of this equipment and grooming will help the Ukrainians resist in an insurgent form and conventionally," said Evelyn Farkas, who served as deputy assistant secretarial assistant of defense for Russian federation, Ukraine and Eurasia in the Obama administration.
Sending weapons to Ukraine is important, said James G. Stavridis, a retired four-star Navy admiral who was the supreme centrolineal commander at NATO, but even more than pivotal may be less visible countermeasures: American intelligence to help pinpoint Russian forces and new tools to defend against crippling cyberassaults and to counterattack Russian military communications.
The U.S. relocates its C.I.A. station in Kyiv, after moving its embassy farther from the Russian border.
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The United States temporarily relocated its C.I.A. station in Kyiv on Tuesday, a day after the State Department announced its diplomatic corps would move to Lviv, a western city near the border with Poland, considering of the Russian military buildup about Ukraine, according to officials briefed on the shift.
Removing C.I.A. officers from Kyiv could make collecting information on Russian activity within Ukraine more hard. The U.S. has been working to collect intelligence, declassify it and expose what officials accept called various Russian plots to undermine or replace the Ukrainian government.
On Monday, the State Section as well recommended that U.S. citizens leave Belarus and Transnistria, a Russian-backed breakaway region in Moldova. Both Belarus and Transnistria neighbor Ukraine.
The department had said on Saturday that it would motion most of its diplomatic staff in Kyiv to Lviv, merely non all, indicating that information technology would keep the diplomatic mission operating. A section spokesman, Ned Price, declined to say at a news briefing on Monday how many people remained in Kyiv and were covered by the decision to close the embassy.
Amongst fears of a Russian invasion, the U.s. has strongly urged its citizens to leave Ukraine and has ordered some personnel and their families out of the country.
Kyiv lies inside piece of cake attain of Russian forces massed in western Russian federation and in Belarus. Lviv sits nearly 300 miles farther west, close to Ukraine's border with Poland.
"I have no college priority than the safety and security of Americans effectually the world, and that, of form, includes our colleagues serving at our posts overseas," Secretary of Land Antony J. Blinken said in a statement.
Among those who have already relocated to Lviv, Mr. Toll said, is Kristina A. Kvien, the embassy's chargé d'affaires — the person in charge of an diplomatic mission when no administrator is present. He said Ukrainian constabulary would protect the compound in Kyiv.
"It is certainly our intention to return to that Embassy in Kyiv just equally before long as it is safe for the states to practice and then," Mr. Price said.
In photos: A road trip through a Ukraine searching for its identity.
A reporter and a lensman for The New York Times set off on a journey to explore what it ways to exist a Ukrainian at this moment of national peril. For 560 miles, they followed the Dnieper, a sickle-shaped river that stretches the length of Ukraine, physically separating the country's western regions from the lands to the east, long considered to be more than susceptible to Moscow's gravitational pull. Run into the total story here.
Germany begins to look beyond Russia for natural gas.
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For decades, Federal republic of germany has been a steadfast consumer of Russian natural gas, a relationship that has seemingly grown closer over the years, surviving Common cold War-era tensions, the breakup of the former Soviet Wedlock and even European sanctions confronting Moscow over its annexation of Crimea. Until this wintertime.
Since Nov, the corporeality of natural gas arriving in Frg from Russia has plunged, driving prices through the roof and draining reserves. These are changes that Gazprom, Russian federation's state-controlled energy behemoth, has been regularly pointing out.
"Equally much as 85 per centum of the gas injected in Europe's underground gas storage facilities last summertime is already withdrawn," Gazprom said on Twitter a couple of weeks ago, adding that "facilities in Germany and France are already two-thirds empty."
With tensions betwixt the West and Russia over Ukraine — a key transit country for Russian gas — showing few signs of easing, Germany's new government minister for the economic system and climate alter, Robert Habeck, has begun to raise an issue that was unthinkable just a year or ii ago: looking beyond Russia for the land'southward natural gas needs.
"The geopolitical situation forces us to create other import opportunities and diversify supply," Mr. Habeck, who is a member of the environmentalist Greens, said concluding week. "We demand to act here and secure ourselves improve. If we don't, we will become a pawn in the game."
New satellite images and videos show the scale of Russia's military buildup.
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Tracking Russia'due south Latest Military Movements Around Ukraine
Videos, satellite images and social media posts reveal the scale and intensity of Russian federation's armed forces deployments well-nigh Ukraine's border.
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U.S. officials are alarm that Russia could invade Ukraine in a matter of days. Russia says its buildup of troops and weapons is part of planned military exercises. Satellite images, social media videos and photos evidence the calibration and intensity of some of Russia'due south latest deployments. The state of affairs is volatile, and Russia'due south war machine movements proceed to crusade fear and confusion. Satellite imagery from Sunday shows the arrival of new equipment, and vehicles existence repositioned at a site only 17 miles from Ukraine. U.S. officials and independent military experts say at least one-half of Russia'south battalion tactical groups, which are designed for footing combat, have been deployed nigh Ukraine. Vehicles transporting short-range ballistic missile systems called Iskanders appear to be moving closer to the border, as seen here in Western Russia in February. Satellite images evidence that these types of weapons were too moved to a site in Republic of belarus in Jan, putting them within range of Ukraine's uppercase, Kyiv. And in mid-February, there was a new addition to the site: a field hospital. Another field hospital was likewise set up in Crimea, the part of Ukraine that was seized by Russia in 2014. In the same area, satellite images prove a new camp for troops, which could point a higher level of war machine readiness. And in Belarus, videos show this Krasukha-iv, one of Russian federation's virtually powerful electronic warfare systems, about 50 miles from Ukraine. Information technology has a range of up to 186 miles, and is typically used to interfere with military aircraft radar systems. Russia has also deployed helicopters, and more than than half of these footing-set on aircraft recently arrived at an airfield in Republic of belarus. It is too moved landing ships from Northern Europe that tin transport tanks, armored vehicles and troops. Russia says thirty of its ships are taking function in live-fire exercises, but the fleet is too finer blocking Ukraine'southward ports, and further encircling the country.
U.S. officials are warning that Russia could invade Ukraine in a thing of days. Russia says its buildup of troops and weapons is part of planned military exercises. Only U.S. officials and independent war machine experts say at least half of Russia's battalion tactical groups, which are designed for ground combat, have been deployed well-nigh Ukraine.
Ukraine's president says joining NATO remains a desire, but may perchance exist simply a dream.
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KYIV, Ukraine — For Ukraine, joining the NATO security alliance is an aspiration enshrined in its constitution. And although Western leaders say membership is a distant prospect at best, Russia regards fifty-fifty the possibility as an existential threat.
That dispute is at the core of Russian federation's menacing military buildup surrounding Ukraine. The Us and NATO have said that the conclusion to seek membership should be upward to individual countries, and in public Ukrainian officials have insisted that there is no modify in their position.
But on Monday, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine did not dominion out the possibility of dropping his state'due south bid to join NATO, saying: "Perchance the question of open doors is for u.s.a. similar a dream."
While emphasizing that NATO membership "is for our security and it is in the constitution," Mr. Zelensky, speaking at a news conference alongside Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany, best-selling the hard place the country finds itself in, nearly completely encircled by Russian or Russian-backed forces, and with partners like the United States insisting it volition not ship troops into Ukraine to repel a Russian invasion.
"How much should Ukraine go on that path?" Mr. Zelensky said of NATO membership. "Who will support us?"
Mr. Zelensky was responding to a question about comments made past Vadym Prystaiko, Ukraine's ambassador to United kingdom, who told BBC radio on Sunday that his government was "flexible in trying to observe the best manner out" and was considering dropping the country'southward NATO ambitions.
Since December, the Ukrainian government has been quietly pursuing negotiations that could lead to acceptance of some form of neutrality, or another solution more narrowly focused on Russian demands in a cease-fire agreement in the long-running disharmonize in eastern Ukraine.
In public, officials including the current strange government minister, Dmytro Kuleba, take rejected concessions equally counterproductive and probable only to encourage further Russian aggression.
Mr. Prystaiko, a former foreign government minister who served nether President Zelensky, was asked in the BBC interview: "If it averts war, will your country contemplate non joining NATO, dropping that every bit a goal?"
He replied: "We might, peculiarly being threatened similar that, blackmailed similar that, and pushed to it."
While emphasizing that even commenting on the possibility could be seen equally violating Ukrainian laws, he went on: "What I'k maxim here, is we are flexible in trying to find the best fashion out. If nosotros accept to get through some serious concessions, that's something we might do, that is for sure."
His comments caused a stir, and the Ukrainian government speedily sought to analyze the matter. The spokesman for Ukraine's strange ministry, Oleh Nikolenko, tweeted that Mr. Prystaiko's comments had been reported out of context. "Ukraine'south position remains unchanged," he said. "The goal of NATO membership is enshrined in the constitution."
Mr. Prystaiko later emphaisized in an interview with Yevropaiska Pravda, a Ukrainian news outlet, that "there are no changes at present" to the country'south opinion. But because Ukraine is not a member of the alliance, he said, in the current collision with Russia "we cannot count on NATO because we are not a fellow member of the family unit."
The Kremlin spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, welcomed the ambassador's comments while acknowledging the response from the Ukrainian foreign ministry.
"Clearly, Ukraine's confirmed rejection of the thought of joining NATO would be a step that would significantly facilitate the formulation of a ameliorate response to Russia'southward concerns," Mr. Peskov said on Monday. Only given the confusion around the comments, he added: "We cannot translate it every bit a fact that Kyiv's conceptual worldview has changed."
The Pentagon chief will visit Belgium and Eastern Europe this week.
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Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III volition meet with NATO leaders in Brussels on Tuesday to talk over Russia'due south military buildup around Ukraine, the Pentagon appear on Monday.
Mr. Austin will then go to Poland to visit American troops and to Lithuania to run across with Baltic leaders, said John F. Kirby, the Pentagon'south primary spokesman.
Speaking on Monday, Mr. Kirby told reporters at the Pentagon that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia was still prepared to strike at Ukraine, and dismissed Russian assertions that the buildup of some 130,000 troops was simply seasonal land and naval drills.
"Information technology strains credulity to think that they would take this many troops arrayed along the edge with Ukraine and in Belarus simply for winter exercises," he said.
The Pentagon on Friday ordered 3,000 additional troops to Poland, bringing to five,000 the number of reinforcements sent to Europe in the past two weeks.
The purpose of the troops, nearly all from the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, Due north.C., will exist to reassure NATO allies that while the United States does not intend to send troops into Ukraine, President Biden would protect America's NATO allies from any Russian aggression. Poland borders Ukraine, Russia and Belarus, a close ally of Russia.
Also on Mon, Gen. Marker A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Lt. Gen. Valery Zaluzhny, the commander in chief of Ukraine's armed services, discussed the "security environment in Eastern Europe" during a phone call, the Joint Staff said in a statement.
"Ukraine is a key partner to NATO and plays a critical function in maintaining peace and stability in Europe," it said.
The airline manufacture grapples with Russia'due south military machine buildup around Ukraine.
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Russian federation's armed forces buildup around Ukraine presents the airline industry with a dilemma equally airlines and aviation insurers appraise at what point the risk of invasion could make it unsafe to wing over or into the country.
Their decisions could weigh heavily on Ukrainian authorities efforts to maintain economic stability in the face up of political doubt and to projection an prototype of calm.
The Dutch airline KLM said on Saturday that it would stop flights to, from and over Ukraine because of safety concerns. Ukraine International Airlines continues to operate its schedule of flights, while Latvian carrier airBaltic scheduled extra flights on Tuesday and Wed to encounter passenger demand from Kyiv, the Ukrainian uppercase, to the Latvian capital, Riga.
Many airlines and aviation insurers said that they were watching developments and prepared to respond chop-chop.
"Well-nigh airlines are adopting a await-and-see approach, merely if there's a movement of troops in the management of Ukraine, nosotros will run into a rapid escalation and airlines will say we are going to avoid overflying Republic of belarus and Ukraine'due south airspace," said Marker Zee, founder of Opsgroup, an organization that shares information among flight professionals.
Projections for the overall number of flights to Ukraine in Feb planned by six of the biggest carriers to the country dipped on Feb. 11 compared to a calendar week earlier, but not enough to signal a significant shift in airlines' plans, according to Cirium, an airline information company.
"Airlines take non made any major alterations to their scheduled flights into Ukraine, suggesting that their operational risk assessment is still sufficiently favorable to continue service," said George Dimitroff, an analyst at Cirium.
The July 2014 downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 by a missile from territory held past rebels in eastern Ukraine sharpened discussion inside the industry about the threat of an armed grouping misidentifying a civilian aircraft, Mr. Zee said. All 298 people on board, many of them Dutch, died in the attack.
"After Malaysia 17 the manufacture said: 'We actually need to talk to each other nearly risk,'" Mr. Zee said. Since then, some airlines, including KLM, accept avoided flying over eastern Ukraine.
Maintaining civilian air traffic is a priority for Ukraine's government, which is seeking to preserve stability in the face of the Russian buildup. Ukraine'southward infrastructure ministry said this week that it was setting up a $590 million fund to insure aircraft flying through the country's airspace. Twenty-9 airlines operate flights from 34 countries to Ukraine, it said.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/02/15/world/russia-ukraine-news
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