The United States has evacuated the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine, implored its citizens to leave the country and warned that Russia could launch an invasion of Ukraine any day now.
Today, the @StateDept ordered non-emergency U.S. employees at the Embassy to depart due to continued reports of a Russian military build-up on the border with Ukraine, indicating potential for significant military action. https://t.co/6IgLvE4PJS
— U.S. Embassy Kyiv (@USEmbassyKyiv) February 12, 2022
U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said in a press conference, “We are in the window when an invasion could begin at any time should Vladimir Putin decide to order it. I will not comment on the details of our intelligence information. But I do want to be clear: it could begin during the Olympics.”
Sullivan later added that any American still in Ukraine should leave as soon as possible or within the next 24 to 48 hours. He said, “We don’t know exactly what is going to happen, but the risk is now high enough and the threat is now immediate enough that this is what prudence demands.”
President Biden spoke with Russian President Vladimir V. Putin on Saturday Feb. 12, 2022, about Russia’s military buildup on Ukraine’s borders. According to a White House readout of the call, President Biden said there would be “swift and severe costs” if Russia invaded Ukraine.
President Biden also warned an invasion would produce “widespread human suffering and diminish Russia’s standing.”
But even with the threat of sanctions and mounting pressure for de-escalation from the United States and international community, Russia has remained undeterred in its military build up around Ukraine.
“We continue to see signs of Russian escalation, including new forces arriving at the Ukrainian border,” Sullivan said. “Today, we are talking about more than 100,000 Russian troops amassed along the Ukrainian border, with every capacity out there in the open for people to see.”
If Russia does decide to launch a full-scale invasion, U.S. intelligence officials have repeatedly warned that it would do so under false pretenses.
Sullivan said, “We are firmly convinced that the Russians, should they decide to move forward with an invasion, are looking hard at the creation of a pretext – a false-flag operation – something that they generate and try to blame on the Ukrainians as a trigger for military action.”
U.S. State Department Spokesperson Ned Price said in a press conference that one such false pretext could be a fabricated video.
He said, "One possible option the Russians are considering, and which we made public today, involves the production of a propaganda video – a video with graphic scenes of false explosions – depicting corpses, crisis actors pretending to be mourners, and images of destroyed locations or military equipment – entirely fabricated by Russian intelligence."
Sullivan said that the U.S. was publicly calling out these attempts at creating a false pretext so the international community knows that, if Russia does invade Ukraine, it would be doing so without a legitimate cause for entering Ukraine’s borders.
