US expects Russia to invade Ukraine next week: report

[Guest]

US officials believe Russian President Vladimir Putin has decided to invade Ukraine and an attack could take place as soon as next week, as National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told Americans still in the Eastern European nation to get out within “24 to 48 hours.”

PBS foreign affairs correspondent Nick Schifrin tweeted that US officials believe Putin has communicated an invasion order to the Russian military and that Washington expects a “horrific, bloody” campaign.

According to the report, a Russian attack would be preceded by two days of aerial bombardment and electronic warfare, followed by a ground assault with the potential goal of overthrowing the Kiev government led by President Volodymyr Zelensky.

At the White House, Sullivan told reporters that the PBS report “does not accurately capture what the US government’s view is today,” but did not issue a full-fledged denial.

“Our view is that we do not believe he [Putin] has made any kind of final decision, or we don’t know that he has made any final decision, and we have not communicated that to anybody,” he said.

Moments earlier, Sullivan laid out a scenario consistent with the PBS report before urging Americans still in Ukraine to leave “as soon as possible, and in any event in the next 24 to 48 hours” and warning that “there is no prospect of a US military evacuation in the event of a Russian invasion.”

“If a Russian attack on Ukraine proceeds, it is likely to begin with aerial bombing and missile attacks that could obviously kill civilians without regard to their nationality,” he said. “Subsequent ground invasion would involve the onslaught of a massive force … No one would be able to count on air or rail or road departures once military action got underway.”

“The risk is now high enough, and the threat is immediate enough, that prudence demands that it is the time to leave now, while commercial options and commercial rail and air service exist, and while the roads are open,” Sullivan went on. 

“The president will not be putting the lives of our men and women in uniform at risk by sending them into a war zone to rescue people who could have left now but chose not to,” he warned. “So we’re asking people to make the responsible choice.”

Following that meeting, CNN anchor Christiane Amanpour tweeted: “Official from a NATO ally tells me Pres Biden told them today the US does believe Vladimir Putin has decided to attack Ukraine. Next week.”

The British government issued its own readout of the call, reporting that Johnson had told his counterparts that “he feared for the security of Europe in the current circumstances.”

Shortly before Sullivan took to the White House podium, the British government announced that it was advising UK citizens against traveling to Ukraine and insisting those in the country “leave now by commercial means.”

“These additional deployments are temporary in nature, meant to supplement for a brief time the more than 80,000 U.S. troops already in Europe on rotational and permanent orders,” the official said.

Meanwhile, the Kyiv Post newspaper reported Friday that the US was evacuating all its staff from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine.

The paper reported that a mission member told the outlet he had received orders to leave the country by Tuesday.

Western officials believe Russia has between 100,000 and 140,000 troops massed along its western border with Ukraine, with thousands more forces taking part in joint military exercises in Belarus. 

more: https://nypost.com/2022/02/11/us-expects-russia-to-invade-ukraine-next-week-report/

[PartySick 172,977]

Is a carpet bombing really their only answer here? You'd think marching 100,000 soldiers into the country would be enough without a practical genocide proceeding it.

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, PartySick said:

Is a carpet bombing really their only answer here? You'd think marching 100,000 soldiers into the country would be enough without a practical genocide proceeding it.

It really worries me a lot. Putin even threatens european countries if we dont let him do this, talking about nuclear weapons and ****, is this world war 3? i know nothing about geopolitics, well not enough about this 

[Chromatislaps 34,854]

I I have feeling this is a prelude to an invasion of more countries 

[Guest]

Just now, Chromatislaps said:

I I have feeling this is a prelude to an invasion of more countries 

If they want me to go to war, im sorry but feminism is dead 

[moonsago 7,285]

4 minutes ago, Chromatislaps said:

I I have feeling this is a prelude to an invasion of more countries 

I doubt... Ukraine is a very easy target as they are not apart of NATO and they have history with Russia. Either way, horrible, absolutely insane that this is even allowed in 2022.

[PartySick 172,977]

5 minutes ago, moonsago said:

I doubt... Ukraine is a very easy target as they are not apart of NATO and they have history with Russia. Either way, horrible, absolutely insane that this is even allowed in 2022.

Putin is definitely not going to risk a conflict with the US. He has to be smart enough to know the only thing that can beat the US military is the consequences of US military action (see: the Middle East over the last 20 years).

I bet they see this more as "reclaiming" Ukraine rather than invading.

[Dennis 8,391]

He must be stopped. As Churchill said, you cannot reason with a tiger when your head is in its mouth!

[dit 46,738]

I feel bad for all the Ukrainian people and evne Russia people because their leader is going to lead them to a disaster...also feel bad for the neighboring countries who will feel the consequences of an invasion. When the US invaded Iraq almost the entire middle east plunged into disaster. If Russia invades Ukraine to the extent think tanks are saying they will then Eastern Europe will be in shambles for decades...the wave of refugees alone will destabilize the economy so massively. Literally millions of Ukrainians will flee for their lives...I just hope they get treated well...but my gosh things are looking bad. I still have a glimmer of hope that this will not happen. 

[androiduser 7,438]

a raging homophobe threatening  to attack an even more homophobic country.... well....

[ThisGuyTony 35,108]

Is this really necessary?  

[LilyLark 10,213]

Welp. South Korea, Japan, and India just banned all travel to Ukraine. That's....a very troubling sign that they are not just saying "all our citizens need to leave" but straight up banning travel. They wouldn't do that unless they had intel....

 

[Kattys 4,319]

52 minutes ago, AnnaNicoleSmith said:

It really worries me a lot. Putin even threatens european countries if we dont let him do this, talking about nuclear weapons and ****, is this world war 3? i know nothing about geopolitics, well not enough about this 

As Polish citizen: well, we are screwed. By we, I mean Eastern Europe. Only economy issues can be an upper hand here (Russia imports A LOT of food, basically they're not self-sustainable in that sector. However, there is a major issue with Nord-Stream2 and Russia ability to control natural resources such as gas and providing those resources to Western Europe). So I would say: look for news in economy.

I think Putin seriously believes that he can do Crimea 2.0 but slightly bigger (no one cared back then as far as I remember).

[AsleepOnTheCeiling 6,977]

7 minutes ago, androiduser said:

a raging homophobe threatening  to attack an even more homophobic country.... well....

Kinda disgusting you're generalizing and belittling millions of people's lives as simply "homophobes", thereby meaning their lives mean little and are disposable. It's a poor and corrupt country, and we have seen how information is treated worldwide. The people there are simply uneducated, but it's not entirely their fault. 

[AsleepOnTheCeiling 6,977]

7 minutes ago, Kattys said:

As Polish citizen: well, we are screwed. By we, I mean Eastern Europe. Only economy issues can be an upper hand here (Russia imports A LOT of food, basically they're not self-sustainable in that sector. However, there is a major issue with Nord-Stream2 and Russia ability to control natural resources such as gas and providing those resources to Western Europe). So I would say: look for news in economy.

I think Putin seriously believes that he can do Crimea 2.0 but slightly bigger (no one cared back then as far as I remember).

I think if Russia was slapped with hard sanctions it might deter them from destabilizing Eastern Europe. But that would include countries finding oil somewhere else or HEAVILY investing in renewable energy. I believe at the moment 6% of US oil imports come from Russia, which could be alleviated or solved altogether if it loosened sanctions on Saudi Arabia.