February 19, 2022 – UNIAN
NATO expects that the Russian Army will mount “a full-scale attack” on neighboring Ukraine.
“All signs indicate that Russia is planning a full-scale attack on Ukraine,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in a February 19 interview with German broadcaster ARD on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.
“We all agree that the risk of an attack is very high,” Stoltenberg said.
“No troops are being withdrawn, as Russia says, but new troops are being added,” he said.
He said there were also indications that Russia was preparing to create a pretext for an attack.
His comments came as NATO relocated Ukraine staff from the capital Kyiv to Lviv in the west of the country and to Brussels for safety reasons.
“The safety of our personnel is paramount, so staff have been relocated to Lviv and Brussels. The NATO offices in Ukraine remain operational,” A NATO official said on February 19, without giving any details on the number of staff relocated.
The move comes amid growing concern that Moscow could launch an attack on Ukraine.
NATO and allied countries were monitoring and assessing the situation very closely, according to the official, and continue to take all the necessary measures.
The U.S., Britain and several other Aestern countries have already relocated their embassy operations from Kyiv to the western city of Lviv out of concern for the safety of their staff.
https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-stoltenberg-russia-full-scale-attack/31711792.html
I can’t believe I’m reading this. Are the Budapest signatories and Nato really going to stand by whilst packs of rabid marauding savages attack Kyiv?
This guy sounds more like a spokesman or journalist than the leader of the greatest military union in the history of the world.
Did you see that link I sent you about Wang Yi?
It wouldn’t open for me. Paywall maybe?
Unfortunately I can’t verify this; the Express is not a reliable source:
VLADIMIR Putin faced humiliation at the hands of China after Beijing told the Russian tyrant to drop his Ukrainian war plans.
By JOHN VARGA
Beijing’s Foreign Minister said that Ukraine had the right to safeguard its sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity. The Russian President has amassed close to 200,000 troops on Ukraine’s northern, eastern and southern flanks, according to US officials. Defence analysts working for the Atlantic Council organisation warned that the Kremlin had completed preparations for a large-scale offensive operation.
They said that Russian forces could “likely execute a further invasion of Ukraine with less than twelve hours of unambiguous warning.”
With an invasion looking increasingly imminent, China’s top diplomat used his appearance at the Munich security conference on Saturday to warn Mr Putin against following through on his expansionist ambitions.
Wang Yi affirmed Ukraine’s right to safeguard its territorial integrity and urged a diplomatic solution to the escalating crisis.
He called the Minsk Agreement the “only way out” and urged all parties to come together and solve the crisis peacefully.
Mr Yi also said that Ukraine should not be a frontline for competition among major powers.
The Minsk Agreement refers to a diplomatic accord signed in February 2015 in the Belarus capital by representatives of Russia, Ukraine, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the leaders of two pro-Russian separatist regions.
The deal set out a series of military and political steps that remain unimplemented.
A major blockage has been Russia’s insistence that it is not a party to the conflict and therefore is not bound by its terms.
Moscow also wants the breakaway regions to have autonomy over economic and foreign policy – something Kyiv would find very hard to countenance.
Wang Yi’s slap-down of Mr Putin comes as a major surprise, given that China’s President Xi Jinping appeared to back Mr Putin’s Ukraine policy.
The two leaders met in Beijing at the start of the Beijing Winter Olympics.
They issued a joint statement calling on the West to “abandon the ideologised approaches of the cold war”.
In a nod to Russian interests in Ukraine, China said it understood and supported “the proposals put forward by the Russian Federation on the formation of long-term legally binding security guarantees in Europe.”
Volodymr Zelenskiy, Ukraine’s President, attended the Munich security conference today, where he met with Boris Johnson.
The Prime Minister reiterated the UK’s “unequivocal support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity”, a Downing Street spokesperson said.
They added: “The prime minister told Zelenskiy that the UK continues to cooperate closely with international partners to make clear that any Russia incursion will be met with strength, including significant economic consequences.
The chinese do say so, but think otherwise. Nothing new.
Yeah, like a fortune-teller.
Seriously, Scradge, did you expect anything else? New underwear is all the rage in Western marshmallow countries, including Washington.
“NATO and allied countries were monitoring and assessing the situation very closely, according to the official, and continue to take all the necessary measures.”
So far, the only “necessary steps” taken by NATO is to scurry away from Ukraine like rats.