Russia's Invasion of Ukraine - Consolidated Thread

[schwartzie]

Putin has ordered Russian troops to invade Ukraine, U.S. intelligence reveals: Secretary of State Antony Blinken insist Putin's threat to Ukraine is 'deadly serious'


A Sunday CBS report claims U.S. intelligence found Putin has already given orders for Russian troops to invade Ukraine

Pentagon Chief Lloyd Austin said that Putin is poised for a 'successful invasion'

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the Russian threat is 'dead serious'

He still plans to meet with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov this week to try and find a diplomatic path forward

'It's my responsibility to do everything I can to try diplomatically to prevent a war,' Blinken told NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday

Blinken said if the meeting goes forward with Lavrov it means there's still time to divert war, but if it doesn't that means war is already underway

By KATELYN CARALLE, U.S. POLITICAL REPORTER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM



PUBLISHED: 10:49 EST, 20 February 2022 | UPDATED: 12:04 EST, 20 February 2022




U.S. intelligence reveals Russian President Vladimir Putin has already given his troops orders to proceed with an invasion into Ukraine, according to a new Sunday report.



'The intelligence says that Russian troops have actually received orders now to proceed with the invasion,' CBS News' David Martin told Face the Nation host Margaret Brennan.



'So not only are they moving up closer and closer to the border and to these attack positions, but the commanders on the ground are making specific plans for how they would maneuver in their sector of the battlefield,' he added.





'They're doing everything that American commanders would do once they got the order to proceed.'



Martin's revelation comes after President Joe Biden said Friday that he is very certain that Putin has already made up his mind that he will attack Ukraine based on D.C's 'significant intelligence capability.'



Meanwhile, America's top foreign affairs officials warned Sunday that Putin's moves show that Russia is 'dead serious' about invading Ukraine, but insist there likely won't be a threat to U.S. troops.



'He's assembled the kinds of things that you would need to conduct a successful invasion,' Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told ABC's Martha Raddatz of Putin in an interview tapped in Ukraine.



'Are you absolutely confident in the intelligence you're seeing now?' Raddatz asked Austin.



'We have high confidence in the things that we're looking at,' he responded.



'Of course, in terms of being able to predict exactly what's going to happen going forward, you never can,' he said, adding that the Pentagon is 'looking at every possibility.'



When asked what the chances are that Putin is bluffing, Secretary of State Antony Blinken told CNN's State of the Union: 'I think while there's always a chance.'



'Everything we're seeing suggests that this is dead serious, that we are on the brink of an invasion,' he continued.

Continued at link

[ExquisiteGerbil]

Well, the moon is full, the weather is right...we shall soon see...

[shalom]

[shalom]

 

[shalom]

[schwartzie]

Here's the latest from EUCOM which is at DEFCON 2; click on the link to access the full stories:



February 20, 2022 - Over 10 Russian ships have now reportedly passed under the Crimean Bridge (Kerch Strait Bridge) and entered the Sea of Azov. The ships include: Project 775, the Saratov Project 1171 large landing ships, and Pavel #Derzhavin Project 22160 patrol ship. Read more


February 20, 2022 - CNN has now reported that Russia has around 75% of its 'conventional forces' positioned around the Ukrainian border, including 120 Battalion Tactical Groups that are within 60km of Ukraine, 35 air defense battalions, 500 fighters and bomber aircraft and 50 medium to heavy bombers. (as always, question everything) Read more

Taken from Defcon Level Warning System: link

[J.J.Gibbs]

Given the numbers of ambulances being marshaled and spotted in recent days, one would assume that they’re expecting a considerable number of casualties.

If Kharkiv is a primary objective, Russian forces wouldlikely continue driving south until they hit blue water, then west to Crimea, cutting off the breakaways from the rest of a Ukraine.

Regardless if the West blinks, this has cost Putin a fortune. Probably 75% of his military has been staged by now - even if the west accedes to his demands to add no more countries to NATO, what has he really gained? More empty promises?



This may have gone too far to be called off.

[Shoshanna]

Moscow publishes a map of bomb shelters for its citizens. 

[Berean]

"Secret room?" Probably the toilet! 

[Berean]

[leilani]

I think it's more likely that the US might launch a false flag and blame Russia. I don't trust the Biden admin one bit! 



US warns Putin might launch false flag chemical weapons attack before invading Ukraine: Russia expels America's deputy ambassador and demands Biden pull all troops out of Central and Eastern Europe

US has warned that Russia's Vladimir Putin might launch a chemical weapons attack before invading Ukraine

Russia dramatically upped price of de-escalating the Ukraine crisis, all-but dashing faint hopes of diplomacy

Moscow has demanded the US remove all weapons and troops in central and eastern Europe and the Baltics

It came as Putin kicked out the US deputy ambassador, prompting Biden to warn of invasion within 'days'

Russia-backed rebels also launched mortar attacks in eastern Ukraine, attempting to blame Kiev in what Boris Johnson said was a 'false flag' operation aimed at providing a 'spurious pretext' to invade

By CHRIS PLEASANCE and NICK CRAVEN IN KIEV and LAUREN LEWIS and WILL STEWART FOR MAILONLINE



PUBLISHED: 04:15 EST, 17 February 2022 | UPDATED: 14:33 EST, 17 February 2022


The US on Thursday warned that Vladimir Putin might launch a false flag chemical weapons attack before invading Ukraine after Russia expelled America's deputy ambassador and demanded Washington pull all of its troops out of Central and Eastern Europe.



Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Russia's plans for a false flag operation could include a chemical weapons attack on its own people as it tries to manufacture a pretext for invading Ukraine.



Addressing the United Nations Security Council, he gave the fullest account of what Washington knows of Russia's plans and he demanded that Russia immediately begin withdrawing troops from Ukraine's borders.





Blinken, who upended his travel plans to speak at the UN, said Russia was preparing for an invasion 'in the coming days.' 'We don't know exactly the formal take,' he said, explaining that he believes Putin will start an invasion by creating an excuse to attack.



'It could be a fabricated so-called terrorist bombing inside Russia, the invented discovery of the mass grave, a staged drone strike against civilians, or a fake - even a real - attack using chemical weapons.'



It came hours after Moscow's foreign ministry dashed what little hope remained for diplomacy in a lengthy document handed to the US ambassador to Russia demanding that all of Washington's weapons in central and eastern Europe and the Baltics be removed - along with all weapons already sent to Ukraine - and repeated demands that Ukraine is banned from joining NATO.



In the document, which the US is expected to reject, Moscow accused Washington of failing to respond constructively to the demands it presented in December, including for a halt to the eastern enlargement of NATO.



Russia's 'red lines' were still being ignored, it said in a riposte to US and NATO counter-proposals received last month.



At the same time, the US deputy ambassador to Moscow was expelled - prompting Joe Biden to say he now expects Russia to invade Ukraine in a 'matter of days' and that he will not be speaking to Putin in the meantime.



It comes after Boris Johnson accused Russia of staging a 'false flag' operation in eastern Ukraine by firing mortars at a kindergarten in order to give Putin a 'spurious pretext' to invade the country.



The UK Prime Minister, speaking during a visit to RAF Waddington, said he fears that more such attacks will take place in the coming days and that the picture on Ukraine's border 'continues to be very grim'.



He later announced in a tweet that he will travel to the Munich Security Conference, which Russia said last month it would not attend, for 'discussion with partners'. 'The West is united: De-escalation and dialogue is the only way forward,' he wrote.



Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, speaking after the talks with her Ukrainian counterpart on Thursday, said the Kremlin's demand the UK recognise the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk showed 'flagrant disregard' for Moscow's peace process commitments.



'The Duma's request that Vladimir Putin recognises the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk as independent shows flagrant disregard for Russia's commitments under the Minsk agreements, Truss said on Thursday.



'If this request were accepted, it would represent a further attack on Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, signal an end to the Minsk process and demonstrate a Russian decision to choose a path of confrontation over dialogue.



'We urge Russia to end its pattern of destabilising behaviour against Ukraine and to implement the commitments it has freely signed up to, including the Minsk agreements.'



Blinken on Wednesday criticized the move by Russian lawmakers towards recognising the two Russian-backed breakaway regions as independent.



Meanwhile satellite images revealed a new pontoon bridge has been build across the Pripyat River in Belarus, close to Chernobyl and about 80 miles north of Kiev. It is feared the bridge, which has appeared close to areas where Russian tanks are stationed, could be used for an assault on the capital.



And on Thursday evening, Yaşar Halit Çevik, chief monitor of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, said that some 500 explosions had been recorded between Wednesday evening and Thursday morning. In a sign that tensions could be easing, he said: 'After 11.20 (am) we have recorded about 30 explosions.'

Full story at the link

[Pink Rose]

20 Feb, 2022 19:29

Russia has 'no space to retreat' – ambassador



Moscow’s envoy to Washington, Anatoly Antonov, has criticized NATO expansion and has responded to latest Ukraine predictions in US

Russia has 'no space to retreat' – ambassador



Russia’s ambassador to the US has rejected President Joe Biden’s latest prediction of an imminent Ukraine invasion, saying Moscow wants to solve problems together with Washington rather than see its security concerns and sovereign rights continue to be shrugged off.



“We would like to put everything on paper,” Ambassador Anatoly Antonov said on Sunday in an interview with CBS News host Margaret Brennan. “We would like to see legally binding guarantees for Russian security,” such as a commitment that Ukraine won’t be allowed to join NATO.



Asked about Biden’s statement that President Vladimir Putin has decided to invade Ukraine, Antonov avoided contradicting America’s commander-in-chief directly, saying Russia has declared in writing to the US State Department that no such attack is planned. But he also bristled at the notion of Western nations presuming to decide how Russian troops should be deployed. 
 
Continued at the link

[Midnight]

20 Feb, 2022 19:29

Russia has 'no space to retreat' – ambassador


Moscow’s envoy to Washington, Anatoly Antonov, has criticized NATO expansion and has responded to latest Ukraine predictions in US




Russia’s ambassador to the US has rejected President Joe Biden’s latest prediction of an imminent Ukraine invasion, saying Moscow wants to solve problems together with Washington rather than see its security concerns and sovereign rights continue to be shrugged off.



“We would like to put everything on paper,” Ambassador Anatoly Antonov said on Sunday in an interview with CBS News host Margaret Brennan. “We would like to see legally binding guarantees for Russian security,” such as a commitment that Ukraine won’t be allowed to join NATO.



Asked about Biden’s statement that President Vladimir Putin has decided to invade Ukraine, Antonov avoided contradicting America’s commander-in-chief directly, saying Russia has declared in writing to the US State Department that no such attack is planned. But he also bristled at the notion of Western nations presuming to decide how Russian troops should be deployed.


Continued at link

[Midnight]

[Midnight]

[Midnight]

[Midnight]

53,000 people evacuated from Donbass into Russia

[schwartzie]

What's fake, and what isn't?  Here's The Gateway Pundit claiming that talk of an invasion of Ukraine is false, yet many (reliable) news outlets and tweets from citizens say the opposite, often confirmed by videos and pictures. I'm not an expert in diplomacy, but I seriously don't think one nation is going to give the world notice that it plans to invade another.

I'm posting this article to show you the other side of the story; only time will tell who's right. We do know Biden is wagging the dog and he and his regime will do everything possible to incite a war to detract from his abysmal failure as "president."  



Blood-Thirsty Fake News Media is Devastated after Russian Ambassador Says Putin Will Not Invade Ukraine (VIDEO)

By Jim Hoft

Published February 20, 2022 at 9:58pm




The fake news media and their cohorts in the Democrat Party continue to push for World War III. On Sunday Face the Nation anchor Margaret Brennan invited Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov on to discuss the Russia-Ukraine crisis.



Brennan’s first mistake was quoting Joe Biden. It went downhill from there.



Margaret Brennan: President Biden says President Putin has decided to invade Ukraine. Is he correct?



Ambassador Antonov: There’s no invasion and there’s no such plans. It was fixed in Russian documents that we can wait to our American friends in State Department. Russia has publicly decided, declared its readiness to continue diplomatic efforts to resolve all outstanding issues. Russian troops are on sovereign Russian territory. We don’t threaten anyone.


This must have infuriated the media. They are really pushing for that war with Russia.

link

[ExquisiteGerbil]

I'm posting this with a caveat - it doesn't quite fit the narrative Tsarfati gave on the update I just posted, but as Schwartzie said, who knows anymore what's true and what isn't? Just look at all sides, pray for discernment, and watch and see how thing play out. 

Putin paves way to invade after formally recognising rebel-held territories in eastern Ukraine as independent states to let him send in troops to ‘defend them’ – as tanks in 'battle formation' are spotted less than three miles from border


Vladimir Putin will recognise Ukraine's eastern regions as independent and sign a degree to that effect shortly

Move would pave the way for Russian troops to roll in, on basis of 'defending' them against Ukrainian 'threats'

Putin spoke after an hours-long meeting of Russia's security council, with aides laying out the case for war

Having spent days staging what are widely thought to be false flag attacks and blaming them on Kiev, Kremlin officials presented them as 'evidence' that ethnic Russians are at risk of 'genocide' and must be protected

All eyes will now turn to Ukraine's border regions, where Russian tanks have been spotted in 'battle formation'

By CHRIS PLEASANCE and RACHAEL BUNYAN and NICK CRAVEN IN KIEV and WILL STEWART FOR MAILONLINE



PUBLISHED: 04:13 EST, 21 February 2022 | UPDATED: 13:48 EST, 21 February 2022



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Vladimir Putin will recognise Ukraine's eastern regions as independent states and sign a degree shortly - a move that will pave the way for a long-feared Russian invasion of country.



Recognising the rebel regions' independence effectively shatters the Minsk peace agreements and opens the door for Russia to sign treaties with the 'states' and openly send troops and weapons there to defend them against Ukrainian 'threats'.



The move fuels further tension with the West and narrows the diplomatic options available to avoid war, since it is an explicit rejection of a seven-year-old ceasefire mediated by France and Germany, still touted as the framework for any future negotiations on the wider crisis.





The Kremlin said that upon hearing that Putin will sign the order to recognise the independence of eastern Ukraine's separatist republics, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz had 'expressed disappointment' over the decision in phone calls with the Russian President.



Earlier, Putin vowed to decide 'today' whether to recognise Ukraine's eastern regions as independent states. He made the remark at the end of an hours-long security council meeting that was broadcast on Russian TV during which the country's top security officials were called up one by one and asked to lay out the case for war - seemingly aimed at persuading a skeptical public of the need to attack.



Having spent days staging what are widely believed to be false flag attacks on Ukrainian soil and blaming them on Kiev, ministers presented the 'evidence' to Putin today: Claiming Russians in Ukraine's Donetsk and Luhansk regions are under threat of 'genocide', that no peace deal can save them, and that he must intervene to save lives.



But in evidence that the entire spectacle was being staged - with the West warning a decision to invade has already been made - eagle-eyed viewers noticed that defence minister Sergei Shoigu's watch was five hours behind Moscow time, suggesting the hearing was pre-recorded.



All eyes will now turn to Ukraine's border regions for evidence that Russian troops have crossed, after videos published earlier in the day showed tanks and armoured vehicles in 'battle formations' - some of them less than three miles from the frontier.



Dymtro Kuleba, Ukraine's defence minister, said after the council meeting that 'the entire world' will watch what Russia does next and that 'everyone realises the consequences' if Putin vows to recognise the breakaway regions. 'We all should calmly focus on de-escalation efforts, [there is] no other way,' he tweeted.



It comes as two Ukrainian soldiers died on Monday and three were wounded in a shelling attack in Zaitseve, a village 18 miles north of the rebel stronghold Donetsk, Ukraine's national police said.



German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who had a phone call with Putin this evening, warned him that recognising the eastern regions would be a 'one-sided' breach of peace negotiations and that he has a 'responsibility' to de-escalate tensions by removing troops from the border.



Meanwhile Joe Biden said he would meet with his own national security team to discuss the situation, having been rebuffed earlier in the day over a summit with Putin. France claimed to have brokered a meeting between the two men next week, which the White House agreed to, before the Kremlin said no 'concrete' plans had been made.



It is the second time that Emmanuel Macron, who has tried to position himself as Europe's top security negotiator, has been embarrassed by Moscow - given guarantees which were revoked when he made them public. Two weeks ago he claimed Putin had agreed to stop military drills on Ukraine's border, which Russia immediately denied.



Elsewhere today...



US officials warned Russian battle plans call for 'overwhelming' fire against Ukraine that could cause 'tens of thousands of casualties' within days of an invasion

US also warned Russia has prepared a hit-list of people it wants to kill or send to detention camps if Ukraine falls, with dissidents, journalists, political figures , ethnic minorities and LGBTQ people all on the list

Fresh explosions were heard in Ukraine's eastern regions with separatist leaders claiming a Ukrainian citizen was killed and that Kiev's troops had crossed the border in armoured vehicles

Russia claimed that a Ukrainian shell hit its territory in the Rostov-on-Don region, destroying an unoccupied guard post. Kiev has strongly denied shelling separatist or Russian positions

Pro-Russian separatists said 60,000 people have now been evacuated from rebel-held areas to Russia

Air France announced it is halting all flights to and from Kiev, following similar move by Germany's Lufthansa

Continued at 
link

  

[bloodbought]

Putin Declares Formal Recognition Of Ukraine Separatist Regions As Sovereign States

BY TYLER DURDEN

MONDAY, FEB 21, 2022 - 01:27 PM


Update(2:30pmET): It's official: Putin has confirmed the change of status recognition while warning Kiev and the West that Russia's military will act against any further aggression. He warned that Ukraine's government must now halt all military actions against Donbas or whatever happens next will be on them.



President #Putin signed decrees recognising independence of #Donetsk People's Republic and #Lugansk People's Republic, as well as treaties on friendship and cooperation between #Russia and DPR and LPR. pic.twitter.com/LHoQhUslde



— Russian Embassy, UK (@russianembassy) February 21, 2022

"Modern Ukraine was completely created by Russia," Putin stated at the outset of his speech.



PUTIN SAYS UKRAINE WAS NOT ABLE TO ACHIEVE STABLE STATEHOOD AND HAS THEREFORE HAD TO RELY ON FOREIGN COUNTRIES LIKE THE UNITED STATES

PUTIN: UKRAINE HAS BECOME 'A COLONY WITH A PUPPET GOVERNMENT'

PUTIN SAYS UKRAINE PLANS TO CREATE ITS OWN NUCLEAR WEAPONS

PUTIN SAYS WE WERE PROMISED NATO WOULD NOT EXPAND PUTIN SAYS THE OPPOSITE HAPPENED

PUTIN: I WILL SAY SOMETHING IVE NEVER SAID FOR THE FIRST TIME: I ASKED CLINTON HOW WOULD YOU FEEL ABOUT RUSSIA JOINING NATO?

PUTIN SAYS WE SAW FIVE WAVES OF NATO EXPANSION RECENTLY

U.S. DOES NOT NEED SUCH A BIG COUNTRY AS RUSSIA IN NATO

'WHY MAKE AN ENEMY OF US

PUTIN SAYS RUSSIA HAS EVERY RIGHT TO PROTECT ITS SECURITY, THAT'S WHAT WE'LL DO

PUTIN: UKRAINE DOESNT WANT A PEACEFUL RESOLUTION

PUTIN: RUSSIA WILL TAKE STEPS TO ENSURE ITS SECURITY

PUTIN SAYS RUSSIA WILL RECOGNISE INDEPENDENCE OF TWO BREAKAWAY REGIONS IN EASTERN UKRAINE

Continued at link

[shalom]

DEFCOM seems to be a reliable source of news and information. Here are the latest top stories; click on the link below to get the links for the full stories.


February 21, 2022 - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy: "Discussed the events of the last hours with @potus. We begin the meeting of the National Security and Defense Council. A conversation with @borisjohnson is also planned". Read more


February 21, 2022 - Putin says Ukraine is capable of creating nuclear weapons using heritage from Soviet era and Western technological support. This could be used as a pretext (or excuse) to move in on Ukraine. Read more


February 21, 2022 - Russian President Vladimir Putin has now officially singed the Donetsk People's Republic and Luhansk People's Republic as sovereign states. The papers are now officially signed, and the Russian stock market futures are now crashing. As of 26 minutes ago at the time of writing this, the futures had plummeted 21% as Putin was speaking on Ukraine during the live address. Read more


February 21, 2022 - White House National Security advisor Jake Sullivan said on Monday that Russia is planning an 'extremely violent' invasion of Ukraine and that Russia seeks to 'crush' the Ukrainian people. Read more


February 21, 2022 - The recognition of Donetsk and Luhansk would allow Russian President Vladimir Putin to do, if he so chooses, is roll his troops, tanks and artillery through the Ukrainian border and into those two regions. This would put Russian troops and tanks within Ukraine while under the pretext that it is Russian territory since it will now be 'officially' recognized as Russian territory the moment he signs the decree. Read more


February 21, 2022 - Putin has reportedly told Macron and Scholz that he will be signing the decree recognizing the independence of Donetsk and Luhansk 'People Republics'. He will reportedly be speaking about it in the live address about to take place. It was supposed to be taking place now, but he is not always on time. Read more


February 21, 2022 - There has allegedly been a car bomb explosion in the city of Lugansk in front of the JCC center that contains Russians who monitor the 'ceasefire'. There are many reports of an explosion that rocked Lugansk city center, and videos out purportedly showing the explosion released by Russian state news, RIA Novosti. Read more


February 21, 2022 - Russian President Vladimir Putin is reportedly 'going around the room asking his top officials if Russia should recognize the Russian-controlled separatist regions in Eastern Ukraine according to Moscow reporter Patrick Reevell. Watching the live now, they are debating on it (news stream is live, they are showing footage from earlier debating on the issue). Read more


February 21, 2022 - U.S. Press Secretary Jen Psaki stated "President Biden accepted in principle a meeting w/ President Putin following that engagement, again, if an invasion hasn’t happened. We are always ready for diplomacy. We are also ready to impose swift and severe consequences should Russia instead choose war". Read more


February 21, 2022 - The LPR and Russian state media are claiming that Ukraine allegedly shelled a position along the Line Of Control and killed two civilians. Read more


Taken from Defcon Level Warning System: link

[PurplePuppy]

Putin Orders Peacekeeping Operation In Ukraine's Breakaway Regions

BY TYLER DURDEN

MONDAY, FEB 21, 2022 - 01:27 PM

Update (525pm ET): In the latest development out of the Donbas, Reuters reports that under its new agreement with separatist leaders, Russia has a right to build and establish military bases in eastern Ukraine.

Meanwhile, as the night progresses in eastern Ukraine, we are now getting footage of "peacekeepers" being bussed in to the Donbas across the border.

Continued at link

[PurplePuppy]

US Evacuates Ukraine Embassy Staff To Poland

BY TYLER DURDEN

MONDAY, FEB 21, 2022 - 09:15 PM


The US State Department has evacuated Ukraine embassy staff from Ukraine to Poland on Monday, amid fears that Russia will launch an attack on Kiev, Bloomberg reports. War fears escalated on Monday, after Vladimir Putin announced that Moscow would immediately recognize the breakaway Donbass republics of Donetsk (DPR) and Lugansk (LPR) as sovereign nations.



The officials are expected to remain at a hotel just over the border with Poland, though they could return to Ukraine as soon as Tuesday if the State Department determines that the security situation has stabilized.

link

[OmegaMan]

[OmegaMan]