As long as an invasion has not occurred, “diplomacy is always a possibility”, however estimated the American president.
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“I’m convinced he made the decision.” Joe Biden said Friday, February 18 “convinced” that Russian President Vladimir Putin had “made the decision” to invade Ukraine, adding, however, that he was not “not too late” for diplomacy.
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“We have reason to believe that Russian forces intend to attack Ukraine (…) in the coming days”said the American president in a speech from the White House. “I am convinced that he made the decision. We have reason to think so”. “We believe they will target Kyiv, a city of 2.8 million innocent people”he added.
As long as an invasion has not occurred“diplomacy is always a possibility”, he added, stressing that the head of the American diplomacy Antony Blinken was to meet his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov Thursday in Europe. If Russia invades Ukraine by then, it will have “slammed the door on diplomacy”warned the American president.
Joe Biden also accused Moscow of waging a disinformation campaign, including accusing Kiev of planning an attack on Russia, to find a pretext to invade its neighbor. “There is simply no evidence to back up these assertions and it escapes all logic to think that the Ukrainians would choose when they have 150,000 troops [russes] deployed to their borders to choose escalation in this conflict that has been going on for years”he noted.
“All these events correspond to a scenario that Russia has used in the past, which is to create a false justification to act against Ukraine”, added the American president. And to conclude: “if Russia carries out its plans, it will be responsible for a catastrophic and useless war, which it will have chosen”.