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Russia to stage nuclear drills with Ukraine tensions high

Russia

Stepping up the game near Ukraine, Russia is planning nuclear drills that will push the Ukrainian-Belarus region into a tension filled area, putting the world on edge, as all watch and wonder what Putin will do next. This is such a dangerous move by the Russians, that could start a conflict that literally no one wants, but Moscow is determined to show its desire to gain back control of Ukraine, and the fact remains that a war is extremely probable. As reported by the AP:

U.S. President Joe Biden sounded unusually dire a day earlier, as he warned that Washington saw no signs of a promised Russian withdrawal

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia announced massive drills of its nuclear forces Friday amid soaring East-West tensions, as the U.S. issued some of its starkest, most detailed warnings yet about how a Russian invasion of Ukraine might unfold.

In this photo taken from video provided by the Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022, Su-30 fighters of the Russian and Belarusian air forces fly in a joint mission during the Union Courage-2022 Russia-Belarus military drills in Belarus. Russia has deployed troops to its ally Belarus for sweeping joint military drills that run through Sunday, fueling Western concerns that Moscow could use the exercise to attack Ukraine from the north. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)

U.S. President Joe Biden sounded unusually dire a day earlier, as he warned that Washington saw no signs of a promised Russian withdrawal — but instead saw more troops moving toward the border  with Ukraine.

“Every indication we have is they’re prepared to go into Ukraine, attack Ukraine,” Biden told reporters at the White House. He said the U.S. has “reason to believe” that Russia is “engaged in a false flag operation to have an excuse to go in,” but he did not provide details.

In this handout photo provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, right, pays a visit to the front line in Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told ABC News that Russian President Vladimir Putin “can pull the trigger. He can pull it today. He can pull it tomorrow. He can pull it next week. The forces are there if he wants to renew aggression against Ukraine.” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also dismissed the Russian claims. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP)

Some are concerned the longtime separatist conflict simmering in eastern Ukraine could provide just that cover. The area saw intensifying shelling and apparent cyberattacks over the past two days.

With tensions already at their highest level since the Cold War, the Russian military announced that President Vladimir Putin will monitor a sweeping exercise of the country’s nuclear forces Saturday that will involve multiple practice missile launches — a stark reminder of the country’s nuclear might amid the showdown with the West.

Members of the Joint Centre for Control and Coordination on ceasefire of the demarcation line, or JCCC, take forensic photos of a crater and damage to a house from artillery shell that landed in Vrubivka, one of the at least eight that hit the village today, according to local officials, in the Luhansk region, eastern Ukraine, Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022. U.S. President Joe Biden warned that Russia could still invade Ukraine within days and Russia expelled the No. 2 diplomat at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, as tensions flared anew in the worst East-West standoff in decades. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

Western fears focus on an estimated 150,000 Russian troops — including about 60% of Russia’s overall ground forces — posted around Ukraine’s borders. The Kremlin insists it has no plans to invade, but it has long considered Ukraine part of its sphere of influence and NATO’s eastward expansion an existential threat. Moscow’s key demand in this crisis is that NATO promise never to allow Ukraine to join — a move the Western alliance has roundly rejected.

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting on economic issues via videoconference in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022. (Alexei Nikolsky, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Biden planned to speak by phone Friday with trans-Atlantic leaders about the Russian military buildup and continued efforts at deterrence and diplomacy.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken revealed some conclusions of U.S. intelligence, part of a strategy designed to expose and pre-empt any invasion planning. The U.S. has declined to reveal much of the evidence underlying its claims.

In this photo taken from video provided by the Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022, Su-30 fighters of the Russian and Belarusian air forces fly in a joint mission during the Union Courage-2022 Russia-Belarus military drills in Belarus. Russia has deployed troops to its ally Belarus for sweeping joint military drills that run through Sunday, fueling Western concerns that Moscow could use the exercise to attack Ukraine from the north. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)

Blinken told diplomats at the U.N. Security Council that a sudden, seemingly violent event staged by Russia to justify an invasion would kick off the assault. Blinken mentioned a “so-called terrorist bombing” inside Russia, a staged drone strike, “a fake, even a real attack … using chemical weapons.”

The invasion would open with cyberattacks, along with missile strikes and bombs across Ukraine, Blinken said, describing the entry of Russian troops and their advance on Kyiv, a city of nearly 3 million, and other key targets.

Fighter jets of the Russian and Belarusian air forces fly in a joint mission during the Union Courage-2022 Russia-Belarus military drills in Belarus, Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022. Russia has deployed troops to its ally Belarus for sweeping joint military drills that run through Sunday, fueling Western concerns that Moscow could use the exercise to attack Ukraine from the north. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko Jr)

At NATO headquarters in Brussels, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin questioned the Russian troop pullout claims.

“We’ve seen some of those troops inch closer to that border,” he said. “We even see them stocking up their blood supplies. You don’t do these sort of things for no reason, and you certainly don’t do them if you’re getting ready to pack up and go home.”

Despite the stark U.S. warnings, Ukrainian officials sought to project calm, with Oleksii Danilov, head of the National Security and Defense Council, saying late Thursday that there were no signs a massive Russian invasion was imminent.

A US serviceman stands at attention during the visit of NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at the Mihail Kogalniceanu airbase, near the Black Sea port city of Constanta, eastern Romania, Friday, Feb. 11, 2022. Stoltenberg paid an official visit to Romania on Friday, where he joined the country’s president Klaus Iohannis at a military airbase that will host some of the 1,000 U.S. troops deployed to the country as the alliance bolsters its forces on the eastern flank as tensions soar between Russia and Ukraine. (AP Photo/Andreea Alexandru)

Nevertheless, U.S. and European officials were on high alert for any Russian attempts to create a pretext for invasion, according to a Western official familiar with intelligence findings. Ukrainian government officials shared intelligence with allies that suggested the Russians might try to shell the areas in the Luhansk region controlled by Moscow-backed separatists on Friday morning as part of an effort to create a false reason to take military action, according to the official who was not authorized to comment publicly.

A Eurofighter EF-2000 Typhoon II jet is seen as Spanish air force personnel and air crafts are deployed in Bulgaria for air-policing mission, in Graf Ignatievo, Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022.. As part of the united efforts of NATO partners to bolster the defense of the Alliance’s eastern flank while tensions are continuing over a possible Russian invasion in Ukraine, Spain is sending fighter jets to Bulgaria to implement joint air policing missions. (AP Photo/Valentina Petrova)

The area saw a sharp spike in shelling Thursday, with monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe reporting more than 500 explosions before the tensions eased in the evening. Ukrainian authorities and separatists traded accusations of violations of a shaky truce in the nearly 8-year-old conflict in Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland, called Donbas. The conflict erupted shortly after Russia’s 2014 annexation of the Ukrainian Crimean Peninsula and has killed 14,000.

Olena Yaryna, the school principal, shows broken windows on the top floor of the school in Vrubivka, after an artillery shell landed near the building in the Luhansk region, eastern Ukraine, Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022. U.S. President Joe Biden warned that Russia could still invade Ukraine within days and Russia expelled the No. 2 diplomat at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, as tensions flared anew in the worst East-West standoff in decades. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

The Ukrainian military command said shells hit a kindergarten in Stanytsia Luhanska, wounding two adults, and cut power to half the town. The rebels said nearly 19 houses were damaged by Ukrainian fire.

Early Friday, separatist authorities in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions reported more shelling by Ukrainian forces along the tense line of contact.

Bricks and debris mixes with toys below a damaged wall after the reported shelling on a kindergarten in the settlement of Stanytsia Luhanska, Ukraine Thursday late, Feb. 17, 2022. UU.S. President Joe Biden sounded unusually dire Thursday, as he warned that Washington saw no signs of a promised Russian withdrawal — but instead saw more troops moving toward the border with Ukraine, indicating Moscow could invade within days. (AP Photo/Oleksandr Ratushniak)

Ukrainian officials charged that the rebels intensified the shelling in the hopes of provoking a retaliatory attack by government forces.

The Ukrainian military chief, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, said that it’s “not planning any offensive operations or shelling of civilians,” adding that “our actions are purely defensive.”

But fears persist the violence could spark a wider conflict, and Western powers scrambled to avert, or prepare for, eventual invasion.

Ukrainian National guard soldiers guard the mobile checkpoint toghether with the Ukrainian Security Service agents and police officers during a joint operation in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022. Fears of a new war in Europe have resurged as U.S. President Joe Biden warned that Russia could invade Ukraine within days, and violence spiked in a long-running standoff in eastern Ukraine that some fear could be the spark for wider conflict. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

NATO’s defense ministers discussed ways to bolster defenses in Eastern Europe, while EU leaders huddled over how to punish Russia if it invades. Blinken and Vice President Kamala Harris are among political, military, and diplomatic leaders heading to an annual security conference in Munich that will see urgent consultations on the crisis.

A Ukrainian National guard soldier guards the mobile checkpoint together with the Ukrainian Security Service agents and police officers during a joint operation in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022. Fears of a new war in Europe have resurged as U.S. President Joe Biden warned that Russia could invade Ukraine within days, and violence spiked in a long-running standoff in eastern Ukraine that some fear could be the spark for wider conflict. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

The U.S. and Russia also planned some talks in the coming days. Blinken is expected to meet his Russian counterpart next week, and Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu is set to have a call with Austin on Friday, the Russian military said.

In the face of Western doubts over Russia’s assertion that it’s sending some forces back to bases, Moscow said the pullout would take time. Russia also made a new diplomatic overture Thursday, handing the U.S. a response to offers to engage in talks on limiting missile deployments in Europe, restrictions on military drills and other confidence-building measures.

President Joe Biden walks to the Oval Office of the White House after stepping off Marine One, Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022, in Washington. Biden is returning to Washington after traveling to Ohio to promote his infrastructure agenda. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

Isachenkov reported from Moscow and Superville from Washington. Lorne Cook in Brussels, Matthew Lee in Munich, Angela Charlton in Paris, Jill Lawless in London, Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations, Frank Jordans in Berlin, and Aamer Madhani and Ellen Knickmeyer in Washington contributed to this report.

By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV, YURAS KARMANAU and DARLENE SUPERVILLE

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