In a quick round of media talk shows, the US diplomat told CNN that “everything we’re seeing suggests that this is very serious, that we are on the verge of an invasion.”
Military action has already started in eastern Ukrainefacing increased bombing by pro-Russian separatist rebels, while the West alleges Moscow has mobilized more than 150,000 troops to the border of the former Soviet republic.
“But until the tanks are really rolling and the planes are flying, we will use every opportunity and every minute we have to see if diplomacy can still deter President Putin to carry this forward,” he told that chain.
Likewise, Blinken reminded CBS that Biden has already made “very clear that he is willing to meet with President Putin at any time, in any format, if that can help prevent a war.”
The two leaders last spoke by phone on February 12, according to the White House.
In Ukraine, AFP reporters heard more shelling overnight near the front line between government forces and Moscow-backed rebels who control parts of Ukraine’s districts. Lugansk and Donetsk.
And in Belaruswhich borders Russia and Ukraine, Russian military exercises are continuing, Minsk announced on Sunday, adding pressure to an already highly tense situation.
Blinken said that was just one of several signs that Moscow was preparing for an invasion, with Putin “following a script almost to the letter.”
“It tells us that the script that we presented, that I presented to the UN Security Council last week, about Russia trying to create a series of provocations as a justification for aggression against Ukraine, is moving forward,” the secretary of state added.
Biden was hosting a meeting of his National Security Council on Sunday to address the Ukraine crisis.
Meanwhile, US Vice President Kamala Harris, speaking to the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, told reporters on Sunday that the West is ready to apply harsh sanctions to Russia if it invades Ukraine.
“We sincerely hope that there is still a diplomatic path” out of the situation, he said, although he acknowledged that window is “absolutely shrinking.”
“We are talking about the real possibility of a war in Europe,” he said.
Source: Ambito
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