U.S. president Joe Biden (L) and Russian President Vladimir Putin meet during the U.S.-Russia summit at Villa La Grange on June 16, 2021 (Peter Klaunzer – Pool/Keystone via Getty Images)
WASHINGTON: The US government has “reason to believe” a Russian invasion of Ukraine is imminent, and that a Russian attack targeting Kyiv will occur in the coming days, President Joe Biden said today.
“At this moment, I’m convinced he’s [Russian President Vladimir Putin] made the decision. We have reason to believe that,” Biden said at the White House.
“We’re calling out Russia’s plans loudly and repeatedly not because we want a conflict but because we’re doing everything in our power to remove any reason that Russia may give to justify invading Ukraine and prevent them from moving,” he said, adding that as long as Putin has not yet invaded, there is still time for diplomacy to work and for a peaceful solution to be found.
Biden pointed to a number of actions that Russia or Russian-backed separatists have taken in recent days to provoke a Ukrainian attack, such as a shelling of a Ukranian kindergarten Thursday in the Donbas region and assertions by Russian state media that Ukraine is preparing to perpetuate a genocide of its Russian citizens.
Just after Biden spoke, the National Security Council acknowledged the US has “technical information” linking Russia to cyberattacks of Ukrainian defense and banking agencies earlier this week.
The U.S. has technical information linking Russian GRU to this week’s distributed denial of service attacks in Ukraine. Known GRU infrastructure has been noted transmitting high volumes of communications to Ukraine-based IP addresses and associated banking-related domains.
— National Security Council (@WHNSC) February 18, 2022
Asked about a Russian exercise involving nuclear weapons this weekend, Biden said he doesn’t believe Russia is “remotely” contemplating the use of nuclear weapons; rather, Putin is aiming to “convince the world that he has the ability to change the dynamics in Europe.”
He declined to detail why he believes Putin has made the decision to invade, only saying that the US has a “significant intelligence capability.”
Over the last two months Breaking Defense has published a number of stories and opinion pieces about the Ukrainian situation. Here is a selection:
- US, Russia should establish deconfliction line for air operations over the Black Sea – now
- In Ukraine conflict, Russia could go after American commercial ISR providers
- Russia vs Ukraine could provide invaluable lessons on what truly works in modern warfare
- Russia’s defense industry might not survive an invasion of Ukraine
- How the Ukraine situation could impact Israel’s strategies for Syria and Iran
- To placate Russia, Israel told Baltic states it would block weapon transfers to Ukraine: Sources
- The Russian military build up near Ukraine is happening at sea too
- What would it take to defend Ukraine? Potentially, billions of dollars
- What Russia might do in Ukraine: 5 Scenarios
- With Russia’s Ukraine build-up, NATO faces existential crisis of coherence
- What weapons will Poland send to Ukraine – and is an alliance next?
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