President Joe Biden Says Russia will invade
Joe Biden says Russia will invade. “As of this moment, I am convinced he’s made the decision,” Biden said during his speech at the White House. He also added that they believe they will attack “in the coming week” or sooner. The target will be the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv. He did emphasize that there is still room for diplomacy.
Biden will gather the national security team over the weekend and monitor any progress during the weekend. He will also remain in close contact with world leaders. His administration has disclosed several intelligence details on Russian troop movements. The reason he chose to do it is to say it “loudly and repeatedly, to remove any reason that Russia may give to justify invading Ukraine and prevent them from moving.”
Russia Refutes the Claims
“Make no mistake. If Russia pursues its plans, it will be responsible for a catastrophic and needless war of choice,” he added.
Mara Zakharova, Russian foreign ministry spokesperson denied the claims Biden made. “The American president also repeated the unsubstantiated thesis about Russia’s alleged attempts to ‘attack’ Ukraine, threatening Moscow with sanctions in the event of an escalation. The Russian Federation categorically denies such statements and escalation plans attributed to it,” the Russian news agency said.
It is up to Ukraine
Biden stated that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky must decide whether or not to attend the security summit in Germany this weekend. On Saturday, Vice President Kamala Harris is slated to meet with Zelensky at the conference.
The US also released a statement regarding the recent cyber attacks on the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense and two banks. “We believe that the Russian government is responsible for widescale cyberattacks on Ukrainian banks this week. We have technical information that links the Russian Main Intelligence Directorate, or GRU, as known GRU infrastructure was seen transmitting high volumes of communication to Ukraine based IP addresses and domains,” said Anne Neuberger, deputy national security advisor for cyber and emerging technology.