White House describing the current situation as “more stark” than it has been. “We believe we’re now at a stage where Russia could, at any point, launch an attack on Ukraine,” she said at yesterday’s briefing.
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- “Secretary Blinken will urge Russia to take immediate steps to deescalate. He will also fly to Kyiv to consult with President [Volodymyr] Zelensky and Ukraine’s leaders, and to Germany for consultations,” Psaki said.
- In an interview on the BBC program Hard Talk, Ukraine’s Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said he believes Russian President Vladimir Putin is outmaneuvering the West. “I know the Russians very well. They are very pragmatic. They are raising the stakes,” Reznikov told the BBC’s Stephen Sackur. “I think that the civilized world is still playing chess with the Russians, but the Russians are playing poker.”
- Blinken arrived in Ukraine’s capital this morning, and in his first comments before meeting with Zelensky, warned that Russia continues to tighten the noose around Ukraine’s borders.
- “We know that there are plans in place to increase that force even more on very short notice, and that gives President Putin the capacity, also on very short notice, to take further aggressive action against Ukraine,” Blinken said.
- “And that force has gotten not only our attention, but it’s gotten the attention of virtually all of our allies and partners, and not just in Europe, even beyond.”
- In a conference call for reporters, a senior State Department official pointed to the movement of Russian forces into Belarus over the weekend.
- “This is neither an exercise nor normal troop movement; it is a show of strength designed to cause or give false pretext for a crisis as Russia plans for a possible invasion,” the official said. “And let’s be clear: This is extremely dangerous.”
SOURCE: WASHINGTONEXAMINER
Political | Process 
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