Ukraine crisis: Vladimir Putin increasing Russia’s military options on border, Pentagon warns – live updates | World news

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has declared that Wednesday 16 February, the day on which US intelligence believes a Russian invasion might happen, will probably be a day of nationwide unity.

Printed on the president’s web site, Zelensky referred to as on the nation’s blue and yellow nationwide flag to be held on state buildings and different buildings, and for the nationwide anthem to be performed nationwide at 10am on Wednesday.

The decree states that “pressing measures to consolidate Ukrainian society” are required so as “to strengthen the consolidation of Ukrainian society, strengthen its resilience within the face of rising hybrid threats, info and propaganda, ethical and psychological stress on the general public consciousness.”

The United Nations has no plans to evacuate or relocate out of Ukraine any of its greater than 1,600 workers, in line with UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.

UN Secretary-Normal Antonio Guterres spoke individually on Monday with Russian International Minister Sergei Lavrov and Ukraine’s International Minister Dmytro Kuleba and nonetheless believed “from his personal evaluation, his personal hopes” that there wouldn’t be a battle, Dujarric stated.

“He welcomed the continuing diplomatic discussions to defuse these tensions and underlined, but once more, the truth that there isn’t a different to diplomacy,” Dujarric stated.

Latvian airline airBaltic is including additional flights from Kyiv to the Latvian capital Riga, citing distinctive demand. The announcement got here after the Ministry of International Affairs urged Latvian nationals to depart Ukraine on the earliest alternative.

In a press release, the airline stated the flights, scheduled on Tuesday and Wednesday, are “to handle the numerous passenger demand”.

“AirBaltic is constantly evaluating the present scenario and … is versatile and able to regulate its flight schedule if essential,” the assertion stated.

Ukraine’s Nationwide Police have entered a so-called “enhanced mode” to “guarantee safety and preparedness,” in line with police Igor Klimenko. In a Fb submit on Monday, Klimenko stated safety measures would enter an “enhanced” mode till Saturday.

In sensible phrases, this implies implementing an elevated variety of patrols to make sure public security and order on the streets; the deployment of further “situational centres” for 24-hour monitoring; and securing safety for vital infrastructure, public authorities and native governments.

He stated the rationale for the improved mode is to “present a extra efficacious response to public security threats”, including: “This stricter police regime shouldn’t be trigger for alarm. It’s essential to make sure safety and preparedness. We defend, not panic!”

Vladimir Putin is including extra navy power and functionality close to Ukraine’s border with every passing day, Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby stated.

“This can be a navy that, that continues to develop stronger, continues to develop extra prepared,” Kirby instructed MSNBC. “They’re exercising, so we imagine that he has quite a lot of capabilities and choices accessible to him ought to he need to use navy power.”

“Ought to he need to use navy power … it might occur any day,” he stated, including that the USA has additionally not dominated out potential cyber assaults from Russia.

The UK is sending a “small quantity” of troops to Lithuania to assist it with the migrant disaster on its border with Belarus, the Ministry of Defence has stated.

Earlier right now it was reported {that a} German navy plane carrying round 70 troopers landed in Lithuania, the primary of a number of deliberate Nato deployments amid fears within the area a couple of attainable Russian invasion of Ukraine.

A senior EU official has stated EU leaders might maintain an emergency summit on the Ukraine disaster this week, on the sidelines of a gathering with their African counterparts, Agence France-Presse stories.

The official stated Brussels was ready for the outcomes of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s go to to the Kremlin and an emergency summit was “attainable” if wanted when EU leaders collect in Brussels on Thursday for the Africa assembly.

The EU official, talking on situation of anonymity, stated the West couldn’t say if Putin has but taken a call to invade – however warned that an assault might happen at any second.

From Ukraine’s minister of international affairs Dmytro Kuleba, following a day of rumours that Ukraine would possibly surrender its ambitions to hitch NATO.

Reuters stories that Russian mercenaries with ties to Moscow’s spies have elevated their presence in Ukraine in latest weeks, stoking fears amongst some Nato members that Russia might attempt to engineer a pretext for an invasion.

The information company cited the knowledge to “three senior Western safety sources”.

The sources, Reuters reported, stated, “their considerations had strengthened in latest weeks {that a} Russian incursion into Ukraine may very well be preceded by an info struggle, and cyber assaults on Ukraine’s vital infrastructure corresponding to electrical energy and gasoline networks.”

Russia might additionally use the mercenaries to sow discord and paralyse Ukraine by focused assassinations and using specialised weaponry, the sources stated.

The USA has warned that Russia might stage a “false flag” operation inside Ukraine to justify an invasion.

“It’s doubtless that Russian mercenaries, underneath the path of the Russian state, will probably be concerned in any hostilities in Ukraine, doubtlessly together with a pretext for an invasion,” stated one Western safety supply, who spoke on situation of anonymity.

The Kremlin instructed Reuters that Russia was not strengthening its presence on Ukrainian territory and that Russian troops had by no means been current there and weren’t now.

Russian oligarchs can be focused with “extreme” sanctions if Russia invaded Ukraine, the UK international secretary, Liz Truss, has stated. (Through PA Media)

Truss stated she nonetheless hoped for a diplomatic answer, telling reporters:

That’s the reason the prime minister and I are travelling round Europe this week, that’s the reason we’re working to influence the Russians to take away their troops from the border, as a result of a struggle can be disastrous.

However she added:

We’re very clear that Russia is the aggressor on this scenario. They’ve 100,000 troops lined up on the Ukrainian borders. They should de-escalate as a result of it will likely be a price to Russia in the event that they invade Ukraine, each by way of the price of a long-running struggle, but additionally the sanctions that we might impose, which might be extreme, and would goal oligarchs and it could goal firms throughout Russia.

AFP has this on Zelenskiy telling Scholz that Russia is wielding its Nord Stream 2 gasoline pipeline as a “geopolitical weapon”.

The controversial vitality hyperlink bypassing Ukraine has been a rising irritant in Germany’s relations with Washington and Kyiv.

“We’ve sure disagreements in our assessments” of the Russia-Germany vitality hyperlink, Zelenskiy stated, after talks with Scholz in Kyiv.

“We clearly perceive that it’s a geopolitical weapon.”

Russia has accomplished the constructing the pipeline, which runs underneath the Baltic Sea, however German regulators are but to approve its use.

US president Joe Biden has warned that he would discover a strategy to “deliver an finish” to the undertaking ought to Russia invade Ukraine.

With out mentioning Nord Stream 2 by identify, Scholz stated that “nobody ought to doubt the dedication and preparedness” of Berlin to punish Russia in case it assaults its neighbour.

“We are going to act then and they are going to be very far-reaching measures that can have a major impression on Russia’s financial improvement alternatives,” Scholz stated.

Vladimir Putin might launch an invasion of Ukraine “virtually instantly”, the UK international secretary, Liz Truss, has warned.

She repeated a name for Britons to depart Ukraine due to the specter of struggle, after chairing a gathering of the federal government’s Cobra emergency committee.

Truss stated:

We’re absolutely conscious that there may very well be a Russian invasion virtually instantly. That’s the reason British residents do want to depart Ukraine however we’re additionally pursuing the trail of diplomacy and de-escalation.

(Through PA Media)