Live: Washington says Moscow has deployed up to 7,000 troops closer to Ukraine

by

Published on :

A senior White House official assured Wednesday evening that Russia had “increased” its presence on the border with Ukraine by up to “7,000 soldiers”, some of whom arrived on Wednesday, even as Moscow announced a withdrawal part of his strength. Follow the latest developments live.

  • 1:15 a.m.: Kamala Harris to meet Ukrainian President on sidelines of Munich Security Conference

The Vice President of the United States will meet with Volodymyr Zelensky on the sidelines of the Security Conference in Munich on Saturday, a senior White House official announced on Wednesday. “It will be a real opportunity to underline our commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” he added.

The vice-president, in addition to delivering a speech on Saturday, the second day of the conference, has a “very intense” program of diplomatic meetings, according to the same source. On Friday, she is due to meet NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, as well as the leaders of the Baltic states. On Saturday, in addition to the Ukrainian President, Kamala Harris is due to meet with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

  • 01:00: according to Washington, Moscow has deployed up to 7,000 more soldiers

“Yesterday the Russians announced that they were withdrawing troops from the border with Ukraine (…). We now know that this is false. In fact we have now confirmed that in recent days Russia has increased its presence along the Ukrainian border of up to 7,000 soldiers, some of whom arrived today,” said a senior White House official, who requested anonymity, on Wednesday (February 16).

“Russia says it wants to find a diplomatic solution but its actions indicate otherwise. We hope it will change direction before launching a catastrophic and destructive war,” he said.

He assured that Russia could “at any time” launch an operation that would serve as a pretext to invade Ukraine. This pretext operation could take “different forms”, such as “a provocation” in the Donbass region, or a false “incursion” into Russian territory.

Indicating to expect “more fake news from Russian state media in the coming days”, he said: “We hope the world is ready”.

With AFP