Russian President Vladimir Putin took the final decision to invade Ukraine, U.S. President Joe Biden told NATO and European Union leaders on Friday, the Guardian reported.
Meanwhile U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said that a Russian invasion of Ukraine could come as early as the next two days, even before the end of the Winter Olympics, though stopping short of affirming that U.S. had definitive knowledge of Moscow's plan to invade its neighbor.
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U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin
(Photo: Reuters, AP, Getty Images)
Nevertheless, Sullivan urged Americans to leave the country now, while the Pentagon announced it is sending another 3,000 combat troops to Poland to join 1,700 who already there due to U.S. concerns of an impending Russian military action against Kiev.
"We continue to see signs of Russian escalation including new forces arriving at the Ukrainian border," said Sullivan.
"Our view that military action could occur any day now, and could occur before the end of the Olympics is only growing in terms of its robustness," Sullivan told reporters at the White House, calling such a scenario "a very, very distinct possibility."
The RIA news agency, meanwhile, cited Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying that Putin and Biden will speak by phone on Saturday, and that the United States initiated the call.
Story republished with permission from i24NEWS