Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday presented his country as the “shield of Europe” against the threat of a Russian invasion, as Moscow carried out a new show of force by carrying out test firings of missiles hypersonic, in full Russian-Western crisis.
“For eight years, Ukraine has been a shield. For eight years, Ukraine has retained one of the largest armies in the world which is massed on our borders and not those “of the European Union (EU), launched the Ukrainian leader from the Munich Security Conference in Germany.
Addressing his Western allies, he also called on them to cease any policy of “appeasement” with Moscow, accused by Washington and Kiev of having massed 150,000 soldiers on the eastern Ukrainian borders.
“All signs indicate that Russia is planning a full attack” on Ukraine, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said in an interview broadcast on Saturday by the German channel ARD.
“We all agree that the risk of an attack is very high”, added Mr. Stoltenberg as NATO announced in the evening the transfer of its personnel present in Ukraine from Kiev to Lviv, in the west of the country, and in Brussels.
Tensions, which had been going crescendo for two months, are now at their height. Washington says it is convinced of an imminent invasion of Ukraine by Moscow, and armed incidents are increasing between Kiev and pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.
The separatists, who accuse Kiev of wanting to attack them, announced on Saturday a “general mobilization” of men able to fight, after having ordered the evacuation of civilians to neighboring Russia the day before.
Adding to that, President Vladimir Putin personally oversaw ‘strategic’ drills on Saturday with the firing of ‘hypersonic’ missiles, new weapons the Kremlin chief previously called ‘invincible’ and capable of carrying nuclear charges. .
Vladimir Putin appeared alongside his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko during a meeting by videoconference with his generals coordinating the firing. According to the Kremlin, these were carried out successfully and involved Tu-95 bombers and submarines.
“Clear” calendar
Friday evening, US President Joe Biden said he was “convinced” that Vladimir Putin had decided to invade Ukraine, and that the multiplication of clashes was intended to create a “false justification” to launch an offensive in “the week” , even the days to come.
“We are convinced that President Putin has made his decision,” repeated the head of American diplomacy Antony Blinken in an interview with the German daily. Suddeutsche Zeitung Saturday.
But Washington claims to leave the door open to dialogue and a meeting between Mr. Blinken and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov is scheduled for February 24.
The Kremlin continues to deny any intention to attack neighboring Ukraine, a pro-Western country that the Kremlin wants to bring back into its sphere of influence.
But Moscow conditions de-escalation on “guarantees” for its security, such as the withdrawal of NATO’s military infrastructure from Eastern Europe and the assurance that Ukraine will never join the Atlantic Alliance. , unacceptable demands for Westerners.
From Munich, Volodymyr Zelensky reaffirmed his wish for Kiev to join NATO, calling for a “clear and achievable” timetable for membership.
He also proposed a meeting with Vladimir Putin, a proposal he had already made to him in 2021 but which had remained a dead letter.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson called on him for “unity” among Western allies, while US Vice-President Kamala Harris spoke of the threat of a NATO reinforcement in Eastern Europe in the event of of Russian attack and that of “severe and effective” sanctions.
In a sign of growing concerns, Berlin and Paris on Saturday called on their nationals to leave Ukraine, while German airline Lufthansa, and its Austrian subsidiary Austrian Airlines, announced the suspension of their flights to the Ukrainian cities of Kiev and Odessa from Monday until the end of the month.
1566 violations
On the front line in eastern Ukraine, the Ukrainian armed forces and pro-Russian separatists accused each other on Saturday of new serious ceasefire violations. Kiev announced the death of two of its soldiers during these clashes.
Mortar shells also fell not far from the Ukrainian Interior Minister, Denys Monastyrsky, visiting the front, without causing any casualties, according to AFP correspondents.
Observers from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) said on Saturday they had seen a “dramatic increase” in ceasefire violations, with a total of 1,566 breaches in 34 hours, a record this year. .
Pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian forces have been clashing since 2014 in a conflict that has claimed more than 14,000 lives.
Moscow maintained on Saturday that a Ukrainian shot had fallen into Russian territory, near the Ukrainian border, without causing any casualties. Information denied by Kiev.
The Russian region of Rostov, bordering Ukraine, has declared a state of emergency to deal with a possible influx of refugees from separatist areas. Nearly 20,000 people have already left these areas, according to local pro-Russian officials.
“We decided to go to the grandmother’s (in Russia) where it’s calm, we had our dose in 2014, we don’t want to wait until the last moment,” Elena Sokela told AFP. , a resident of the separatist “republic” of Donetsk who arrived on the Russian side on Saturday morning with her son.
Washington and Kiev claim that Moscow has about 150,000 troops on Ukraine’s borders, in Russia and Belarus, a figure that rises to 190,000 men when counting separatists in eastern Ukraine.
For its part, Russia has never disclosed the number of its soldiers deployed in the area or participating in the maneuvers underway in neighboring Belarus.