The US has reportedly informed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that Russia may execute a full-scale invasion of its sovereign neighbor within the next 48 hours.
Reports of an imminent attack on Ukraine emerged on Wednesday morning.
‘The president of Ukraine has been warned Russia will highly likely begin an invasion within 48 hours based on US intelligence,’ a US official with knowledge on the matter told Newsweek.
‘Additionally, reporting from aircraft observers indicates Russia violated Ukrainian airspace earlier today, flying possible reconnaissance aircraft for a short period over Ukraine.’
Russia is planning airstrikes and cruise missiles on top of a ground invasion, the US intelligence official told the media outlet, which said the details were confirmed by a second intelligence official.
A source close to Zelensky confirmed to Newsweek that it received the warning, but noted that it is the third time this month it has been told to brace for a large-scale Russian military move.
‘It’s possible for sure,’ the source said, adding that Russian President Vladimir Putin ‘can’t keep so many troops in the field much longer’.
A US intelligence official also told the magazine that Russia’s invasion will involve entering the breakaway Donbas region in eastern Ukraine where Russian units that Moscow deemed ‘peacekeepers’ arrived on Monday. However, there will also be an attempt at the capital Kyiv from the northern border with Belarus, the official said.
In addition, three American, Ukrainian and western officials told CNN that the US issued a new warning to the Ukrainian government on Tuesday morning Kyiv time.
A senior Ukrainian official told the media outlet that Ukraine has not verified the correspondence and that the US has issued warnings in the past that did not materialize. The official added that the northeastern city of Kharkiv is considered particularly at risk.
But in a press conference alongside US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken on Tuesday, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said ‘we do not have such plans’ to evacuate Kharkiv.
The US’s reported warning of a full-scale invasion within 48 hours comes after President Joe Biden acknowledged that Russia has begun invading. Biden on Tuesday afternoon unveiled the ‘first tranche’ of sanctions on Russia and said that Putin is ‘setting up a rationale to go much further’ into Ukraine.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page
from News – Metro https://ift.tt/C1sInQv
0 Comments