(NEW YORK) — The United States continues to warn that Russia could invade Ukraine “any day” amid escalating tensions in the region, with President Joe Biden telling reporters Thursday that the threat is now “very high.”
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday, making urgent remarks to the United Nations Security Council, challenged Moscow to commit to no invasion.
More than 150,000 Russian troops are estimated to be massed near Ukraine’s borders, U.S. officials have said. While Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin claim that some troops have begun to withdraw, Biden told reporters that more Russian forces have moved in, contrary to Moscow’s claims.
It remains unclear whether Putin has made a decision to attack his ex-Soviet neighbor.
Russia has denied any plans to invade and reiterated its demands that the U.S. and NATO bar Ukraine from joining the military alliance.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Feb 21, 10:51 am
Putin says he’ll decide today whether to recognize Russian-controlled separatist regions
Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a national security council meeting that he will make a decision today whether to recognize the Russian-controlled separatist regions in Ukraine as independent.
This came after Putin called an unplanned meeting of his national security council and, in an unusual move, broadcast the meeting live on state TV. The security council unanimously advised Putin he should recognize the self-proclaimed People’s Republic of Donetsk and Lugansk. That would open a path to Russia annexing them, as it did Crimea in 2014.
Feb 21, 10:42 am
Biden meeting with national security team
President Joe Biden is meeting Monday with his national security team, the White House confirmed.
Seen arriving at the White House shortly after 10 a.m. were: Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley, Vice President Kamala Harris, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and CIA director William Burns.
Feb 21, 9:37 am
Russia claims to destroy 2 Ukrainian armored vehicles amid fears of pretext to attack
Russia has claimed to have destroyed two Ukrainian armored vehicles and killed five Ukrainians it claimed crossed into Russian territory, in unverified reports as Russia appears to be intensifying efforts to build a pretext to attack Ukraine.
Russia’s military and its FSB intelligence service claimed a Ukrainian “sabotage and reconnaissance group” was detected Monday morning near a village close to the border in the Rostov region that neighbors the two Russian-controlled separatist regions in eastern Ukraine.
Ukraine has denied the Russian claim and it comes amid a barrage of false reports and staged videos from Russia and the separatists of supposed Ukrainian attacks. In the past three days, Russia has also made dubious claims of shells falling on Russian territory as Russia builds a pretext for a possible attack on Ukraine, under the guise of coming to the aid of the separatists.
Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytryo Kuleba publicly denied the Russian claims, on Twitter calling Russia a “fake-producing factory.”
-ABC News’ Patrick Reevell
Feb 21, 9:19 am
Leader of Russian-backed separatists calls on Putin to recognize separatist regions as independent: Russian media
The head of the Russian-controlled separatists in eastern Ukraine is calling on Russian President Vladimir Putin to recognize the separatist regions as independent of Ukraine, Russian media is reporting.
Denis Pushilin, the leader of the self-proclaimed People’s Republic of Donetsk, is also asking Putin to consider making a treaty on mutual military defense.
Recognition would open a path to Russia potentially annexing the regions and possibly openly sending troops there.
The Russian parliament last week voted to appeal to Putin to recognize the two separatist self-proclaimed republics, though Putin initially signaled he wouldn’t do so immediately.
The two self-proclaimed separatist People’s Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk were formed after Russia stoked conflict in the Russian-speaking region of Donbas in 2014, sending troops in covertly to help establish the regions.
In the last week Russia and the separatist regions have dramatically escalated tensions, accusing Ukraine of an imminent attack and building a pretext for Russian intervention.
-ABC News’ Patrick Reevell
Feb 21, 8:33 am
Likelihood of diplomatic solution ‘diminishing hour by hour’
National security adviser Jake Sullivan told ABC News’ “Good Morning America” Monday that President Joe Biden is prepared in principle to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin if there is no invasion, but that unfortunately, an invasion still seems likely.
“President Biden made clear all along he’s prepared either way. He’s prepared to engage in high level diplomacy to resolve this peacefully and he’s equally prepared to rally our allies and partners to impose costs and consequences on Russia should they choose to invade,” Sullivan said.
“He indicated to the French president yesterday in principle he would be prepared to meet with Putin if President Putin stood down from his invasion,” Sullivan said. “We can’t say anything other than indications on the ground look like Russia is still moving forward.”
Sullivan indicated the window for diplomacy will remain open until more significant military action is seen, but that the window gets smaller as time goes on.
“We never give up hope on diplomacy until the missiles fly or the tanks roll,” Sullivan said. “We’ve been working hard for months with our allies and partners to get Russia to sit down in a serious way at the table, even as recently as yesterday the president indicated his readiness to do that. Russia has not shown the same kind of willingness on their side. The likelihood there’s a diplomatic solution given the troop movements of the Russians is diminishing hour by hour.”
Asked if sanctions will be enough to stop Russia without sending U.S. forces to Ukraine, Sullivan said the U.S. is determined to impose sanctions in the long-term to strangle Russia’s ambitions without the use of ground forces.
-ABC News’ Sarah Kolinovsky
Feb 21, 5:27 am
Talk of Biden-Putin summit ‘premature,’ Kremlin says
The Kremlin has said it is still “premature” to talk about a summit between President Joe Biden and President Vladimir Putin, though it didn’t rule out that one could take place.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Sunday said Biden and Putin have agreed “in principle” to meet, provided Russia did not invade Ukraine.
French President Emmanuel Macron announced the possibility of a meeting after speaking with both leaders on Sunday, amid intense diplomatic efforts to try to dissuade Putin from launching an invasion the U.S. fears could come this week.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that for now there’s only an agreement for Russia and the U.S. to speak at a lower level, between U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister. That meeting is scheduled for this week.
Peskov seemed to suggest that an agreement on a meeting between Biden and Putin would depend on the outcome of those talks.
“I can say that an understanding has been reached that we need to continue the dialogue at the level of ministers,” Peskov told reporters on Monday. “But to talk about some kind of concrete plans about organizing any summits is for now premature.”
Contacts between Biden and Putin can be arranged quickly, if necessary, he said.
-ABC News’ Patrick Reevell
Feb 20, 10:28 pm
US alleges Russia making list of Ukrainians ‘to be killed or sent to camps’
The United States has obtained information of potential Russian operations against Ukrainian targets as part of a potential invasion, including targeted killings, kidnappings, detentions and torture, the U.S. alleged in a letter to the United Nations obtained by ABC News.
“We have credible information that indicates Russian forces are creating lists of identified Ukrainians to be killed or sent to camps following a military occupation,” U.S. Ambassador Bathsheba Nell Crocker wrote to Michelle Bachelet, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights.
That includes the “likely use” of lethal measures to “disperse peaceful protesters or otherwise counter peaceful exercises of perceived resistance from civilian populations,” Crocker wrote.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken alluded to this during his remarks to the U.N. Security Council on Thursday, telling his fellow diplomats, “Conventional attacks are not all that Russia plans to inflict upon the people of Ukraine. We have information that indicates Russia will target specific groups of Ukrainians.”
In addition, sources told ABC News last Tuesday that the U.S. believed Russia aimed to move into Kyiv to decapitate the Ukrainian government and install their own.
But this new letter goes further, saying Russia “would likely target those who opposes Russian actions, including Russian and Belarusian dissidents in exile in Ukraine, journalists and anti-corruption activists, and vulnerable populations such as religious and ethnic minorities and LGBTQI+ persons.”
Ambassador Michele Sison, the top U.S. diplomat for international organizations, is headed to Geneva this week to meet Bachelet at the U.N. headquarters there, the State Department announced Sunday.
“The United States is gravely concerned that a further Russian invasion of Ukraine would produce widespread human suffering. In light of OHCHR’s important mandate and its reporting presence in Ukraine, we wish to share this information with you as an early warning that a further Russian invasion of Ukraine may create a human rights catastrophe,” Crocker added in the letter.
-ABC News’ Conor Finnegan
Feb 20, 8:46 pm
Biden, Putin agree to summit
U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin have agreed to hold a summit proposed by French President Emmanuel Macron. The leaders both accepted the summit “in principle,” with one major condition: that Russia does not invade Ukraine.
“As the president has repeatedly made clear, we are committed to pursuing diplomacy until the moment an invasion begins,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement Sunday evening.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov are set to meet Thursday. During their meeting, they will prepare “the substance” of the summit, according to a statement from the French government. Macron “will work with all stakeholders to prepare the content of these discussions” as well.
Macron spoke with Putin twice Sunday, both before and after he called Biden for a brief 15-minute phone call.
“We are always ready for diplomacy,” Psaki said. “We are also ready to impose swift and severe consequences should Russia instead choose war. And currently, Russia appears to be continuing preparations for a full-scale assault on Ukraine very soon.”
-ABC News’ Justin Gomez
Feb 20, 7:49 pm
US State Department gives more info on Moscow safety alert
A State Department spokesperson said the alert published Sunday warning Americans to avoid crowds and stay alert in places frequented by tourists and Westerners was issued “out of an abundance of caution,” stopping short of tying it directly to the Russia-Ukraine crisis.
“In recent days a number of Russian media outlets have reported on a spate of bomb threats being made against Russian public buildings, including metro stations, in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and elsewhere,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
“The U.S. Department of State has no greater responsibility than the safety and security of U.S. citizens overseas,” they said. “Out of an abundance of caution, and in line with our commitment to providing U.S. citizens with clear and timely information so they can make informed travel decisions, we published this alert.”
(NEW YORK) — After weeks of mounting tensions, United States officials have warned that a Russian attack on Ukraine could happen “any day now.”
Russia has spent weeks building up military forces near eastern Ukraine, with more than 150,000 troops encircling Ukraine in Belarus and on the Russian side of the border, according to U.S. officials.
The Kremlin has denied warnings of an imminent invasion and claimed in recent days that it is withdrawing some troops, while U.S. and NATO officials have said — and commercial satellite images have shown — there have been no signs of de-escalation.
As global leaders continue to engage in diplomatic efforts to avoid war between Russia and Ukraine, a senior Department of State official told ABC News warned Thursday that this is “perhaps the most perilous moment for peace and security since the end of the Cold War.”
As the conflict plays out on a global stage, Americans are somewhat mixed on how the U.S. should respond. In a new poll from Quinnipiac University, 57% of Americans said the U.S. should not send troops into Ukraine if Russia invades, and 54% support Biden’s decision to deploy troops to support NATO allies.
Earlier this week, President Joe Biden addressed the American public and again made clear the U.S. will not send troops to support Ukraine. But he promised to defend “every inch” of NATO territory, already deploying several thousand more troops to Europe, and to support the Ukrainian people and their government with lethal defensive weapons, economic aid, and crippling U.S. and allied sanctions on Russia.
That high level of U.S. involvement is necessary, he said, because “this is about more than just Russia and Ukraine.”
“It’s about standing for what we believe in, for the future that we want for our world, for liberty, the right of countless countries to choose their own destiny. And the right of people to determine their own futures, or the principle that a country can’t change its neighbor’s borders by force,” Biden said. “If we do not stand for freedom where it is at risk today, we’ll surely pay a steeper price tomorrow.”
NATO ties
To understand the United States’ vested interest in the conflict, you’d have to go back to the Cold War, Craig Albert, an associate professor of political science and the director of Intelligence and Security Studies at Augusta University, told ABC News.
To counter Soviet aggression in Europe, the U.S. helped form the security alliance NATO, or the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, in 1949. In the years since, NATO has expanded several times, including adding three former Soviet republics.
Ukraine, a former Soviet republic that is bordered by Russia on the east, is not a NATO member, though in 2008 the alliance opened the door to membership. Russian President Vladimir Putin has demanded this not happen, as he seeks to limit NATO along Russia’s border.
“Ukraine has attached itself to the West, to NATO,” Albert said. “They still have military agreements, treaties, economic treaties, business treaties or relationships, even though there’s no NATO treaty in place between Ukraine and NATO and the U.S.”
The NATO members bordering Russia also present a concern. The potential impact of the Ukraine conflict on U.S. interests is considered “significant,” by the Council on Foreign Relations, which said in part that the conflict “risks further deterioration of U.S.-Russia relations and greater escalation if Russia expands its presence in Ukraine or into NATO countries.”
As Russia tries to “reassert itself into the great power game,” the U.S. is seeking to maintain the balance of power in Europe and “protect Ukraine as a buffer against Russian-perceived aggression in Europe itself,” Albert said, noting that Ukraine is “strategically important” for Russia, the U.S. and NATO.
NATO is “critical to U.S. policy in Europe,” and supporting Ukraine for the past 30-plus years “has been integral to U.S. security policy for the European continent as a whole,” Matthew Pauly, an associate professor of history at Michigan State University who is an expert on Russia, Ukraine and Eastern Europe, told ABC News.
“There’s no doubt that the most eastern-facing NATO member states are quite rightly anxious about Russia’s actions in Ukraine,” Pauly said. “The United States obviously views it as its duty to oblige by the responsibilities of NATO membership to hold the line on the eastern front of NATO.”
Indeed, the U.S. has already sent in troops amid the Russian aggression to support NATO’s eastern flank.
“Make no mistake, the United States will defend every inch of NATO territory with the full force of American power,” Biden said this week. “An attack against one NATO country is an attack against all of us.”
Preventing ‘world war’
The U.S. has sent thousands of additional troops to Central and Eastern Europe in recent weeks, though Biden has made it clear he won’t be sending any to Ukraine to fight Russia and has stressed the importance of diplomacy toward achieving de-escalation.
In an interview with NBC News anchor Lester Holt earlier this week, Biden acknowledged the risk of further aggression. When asked what scenario could prompt him to send troops to aid Americans in Ukraine, Biden said, “There’s not. That’s a world war when Americans and Russia start shooting at one another.”
“We’re dealing with one of the largest armies in the world. It’s a very different situation, and things could go crazy quickly,” he said.
The risk of the conflict escalating beyond Ukraine is “high,” Michael “Mick” Patrick Mulroy, ABC News national security and defense analyst, said on ABC News Live this week.
“It should be a concern to everybody,” he said.
Preserving democracy and sovereignty
Another important dimension to U.S. involvement in the crisis has to do with its support of Ukraine as a democracy, Pauly said. Since 1991, when Ukraine declared its independence, the U.S. has offered “substantial” foreign aid, particularly in the 1990s, to help it emerge from the Soviet period, democratize and develop a free market economy, he said.
“Ukraine is a democracy, it’s the only really functioning democracy of the few in the former Soviet space,” Pauly said. “Although democratization has had sort of a challenging path in Ukraine, it’s hard to argue that it is not a democracy.”
“Democracy in Ukraine is worth protecting,” he continued. “Democracy is our best guarantee against war and best assurance of peace.”
The U.S., along with Western allies, has also voiced support for Ukraine maintaining its sovereignty and territorial integrity against Russian aggression.
Biden said the U.S. has been supplying Ukraine’s military with arms, training and intelligence to help defend itself.
“Nations have a right to sovereignty and territorial integrity,” the president said Tuesday. “They have the freedom to set their own course and choose with whom they will associate.”
Impact at home
The exact impact of an invasion beyond the front lines remains unclear. Though Biden warned the American people that there would be “consequences at home” — foremost an increase in energy prices as a result.
“I will not pretend this will be painless,” Biden said Tuesday. “There could be impact on our energy prices, so we’re taking active steps to alleviate the pressure on our own energy markets and offset rising prices.”
In an incursion limited to eastern Ukraine, there could be a rise in the price of oil by $5 or $10 a barrel, according to Patrick De Haan of GasBuddy. Currently, a $1 per barrel rise equates to about a 1.5 cents per gallon rise in the national average price of gas. Should the U.S. and allies issue severe sanctions on Russia, it could retaliate by curbing oil exports, he said, impacting global markets.
If higher oil and gas prices cause the Federal Reserve to be more aggressive in its monetary tightening, that could also impact inflation, according to Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics.
Cyberwarfare also remains a concern. Last month, the Department of Homeland Security warned that the U.S. response to a possible Russian invasion could result in a cyberattack launched against the U.S. by the Russian government or its proxies.
There’s also the impact on American troops, as more military forces are being deployed to support NATO countries.
“I think [Americans] should be paying attention to this because it could significantly affect strategic deployments of U.S. personnel,” Albert said. “If nothing else, just people moving from where they are in their typical assignments right now, to move somewhere else, more strategically positioned against, perhaps, a Russian invasion.”
ABC News’ Conor Finnegan, Molly Nagle, Sarah Kolinovsky, Zunaira Zaki, Mary Burke, Layne Winn and Will Kim contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — The United States continues to warn that Russia could invade Ukraine “any day” amid escalating tensions in the region, with President Joe Biden telling reporters Thursday that the threat is now “very high.”
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday, making urgent remarks to the United Nations Security Council, challenged Moscow to commit to no invasion.
More than 150,000 Russian troops are estimated to be massed near Ukraine’s borders, U.S. officials have said. While Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin claim that some troops have begun to withdraw, Biden told reporters that more Russian forces have moved in, contrary to Moscow’s claims.
It remains unclear whether Putin has made a decision to attack his ex-Soviet neighbor.
Russia has denied any plans to invade and reiterated its demands that the U.S. and NATO bar Ukraine from joining the military alliance.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Feb 21, 5:27 am
Talk of Biden-Putin summit ‘premature,’ Kremlin says
The Kremlin has said it is still “premature” to talk about a summit between President Joe Biden and President Vladimir Putin, though it didn’t rule out that one could take place.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Sunday said Biden and Putin have agreed “in principle” to meet, provided Russia did not invade Ukraine.
French President Emmanuel Macron announced the possibility of a meeting after speaking with both leaders on Sunday, amid intense diplomatic efforts to try to dissuade Putin from launching an invasion the U.S. fears could come this week.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that for now there’s only an agreement for Russia and the U.S. to speak at a lower level, between U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister. That meeting is scheduled for this week.
Peskov seemed to suggest that an agreement on a meeting between Biden and Putin would depend on the outcome of those talks.
“I can say that an understanding has been reached that we need to continue the dialogue at the level of ministers,” Peskov told reporters on Monday. “But to talk about some kind of concrete plans about organizing any summits is for now premature.”
Contacts between Biden and Putin can be arranged quickly, if necessary, he said.
-ABC News’ Patrick Reevell
Feb 20, 10:28 pm
US alleges Russia making list of Ukrainians ‘to be killed or sent to camps’
The United States has obtained information of potential Russian operations against Ukrainian targets as part of a potential invasion, including targeted killings, kidnappings, detentions and torture, the U.S. alleged in a letter to the United Nations obtained by ABC News.
“We have credible information that indicates Russian forces are creating lists of identified Ukrainians to be killed or sent to camps following a military occupation,” U.S. Ambassador Bathsheba Nell Crocker wrote to Michelle Bachelet, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights.
That includes the “likely use” of lethal measures to “disperse peaceful protesters or otherwise counter peaceful exercises of perceived resistance from civilian populations,” Crocker wrote.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken alluded to this during his remarks to the U.N. Security Council on Thursday, telling his fellow diplomats, “Conventional attacks are not all that Russia plans to inflict upon the people of Ukraine. We have information that indicates Russia will target specific groups of Ukrainians.”
In addition, sources told ABC News last Tuesday that the U.S. believed Russia aimed to move into Kyiv to decapitate the Ukrainian government and install their own.
But this new letter goes further, saying Russia “would likely target those who opposes Russian actions, including Russian and Belarusian dissidents in exile in Ukraine, journalists and anti-corruption activists, and vulnerable populations such as religious and ethnic minorities and LGBTQI+ persons.”
Ambassador Michele Sison, the top U.S. diplomat for international organizations, is headed to Geneva this week to meet Bachelet at the U.N. headquarters there, the State Department announced Sunday.
“The United States is gravely concerned that a further Russian invasion of Ukraine would produce widespread human suffering. In light of OHCHR’s important mandate and its reporting presence in Ukraine, we wish to share this information with you as an early warning that a further Russian invasion of Ukraine may create a human rights catastrophe,” Crocker added in the letter.
-ABC News’ Conor Finnegan
Feb 20, 8:46 pm
Biden, Putin agree to summit
U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin have agreed to hold a summit proposed by French President Emmanuel Macron. The leaders both accepted the summit “in principle,” with one major condition: that Russia does not invade Ukraine.
“As the president has repeatedly made clear, we are committed to pursuing diplomacy until the moment an invasion begins,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement Sunday evening.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov are set to meet Thursday. During their meeting, they will prepare “the substance” of the summit, according to a statement from the French government. Macron “will work with all stakeholders to prepare the content of these discussions” as well.
Macron spoke with Putin twice Sunday, both before and after he called Biden for a brief 15-minute phone call.
“We are always ready for diplomacy,” Psaki said. “We are also ready to impose swift and severe consequences should Russia instead choose war. And currently, Russia appears to be continuing preparations for a full-scale assault on Ukraine very soon.”
-ABC News’ Justin Gomez
Feb 20, 7:49 pm
US State Department gives more info on Moscow safety alert
A State Department spokesperson said the alert published Sunday warning Americans to avoid crowds and stay alert in places frequented by tourists and Westerners was issued “out of an abundance of caution,” stopping short of tying it directly to the Russia-Ukraine crisis.
“In recent days a number of Russian media outlets have reported on a spate of bomb threats being made against Russian public buildings, including metro stations, in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and elsewhere,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
“The U.S. Department of State has no greater responsibility than the safety and security of U.S. citizens overseas,” they said. “Out of an abundance of caution, and in line with our commitment to providing U.S. citizens with clear and timely information so they can make informed travel decisions, we published this alert.”
(LONDON) — Britain’s Queen Elizabeth has tested positive for COVID-19, Buckingham Palace announced on Sunday.
The Queen, 95, has been experiencing “mild cold-like symptoms,” the palace said. She’s expected to carry out “light duties” in the coming week.
“She will continue to receive medical attention and will follow all the appropriate guidelines,” the palace said.
“I’m sure I speak for everyone in wishing Her Majesty The Queen a swift recovery from Covid and a rapid return to vibrant good health,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Twitter.
News of the monarch’s diagnosis comes after it was confirmed that her son, Prince Charles, and his wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, tested positive for COVID-19. Clarence House announced Prince Charles’s diagnosis on Feb. 10, and Camilla’s on Feb. 14.
This is the second time Prince Charles, 73, has tested positive for COVID-19, with his first diagnosis coming in March 2020, before he was vaccinated.
Queen Elizabeth, Britain’s longest-reigning monarch, held several virtual and in-person events this month, including an event in Sandringham on Feb. 5 to mark her 70 years on the throne.
The queen, who returned to Windsor Castle shortly after the reception, met with representatives from local community groups in the ballroom at Sandringham House to celebrate the start of the Platinum Jubilee.
The Feb. 5 event was the queen’s first public, in-person event since October, when she was hospitalized for one night for what the palace described as “preliminary investigations.”
After being advised by her doctors to rest, Queen Elizabeth took on a more modified schedule. In November, she missed the annual Remembrance Sunday Service for the first time in her reign due to a sprained back.
The queen had already modified her schedule throughout the coronavirus pandemic, holding virtual audiences and participating in video calls instead of public events.
When her husband, Prince Philip, died at age 99 last April, the queen sat alone during the funeral service in St. George’s Chapel, following pandemic restrictions.
Both Queen Elizabeth and her late husband received their first COVID-19 vaccination shots in January 2021, Buckingham Palace confirmed at the time.
Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, confirmed in December that they had both received their booster shoots of the vaccine, according to the BBC.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — An abandoned cargo ship carrying more than 1,000 Porsches and other luxury vehicles is burning in the Atlantic Ocean.
The fire on the Felicity Ace broke out on Wednesday. The ship was sailing about 90 kilometers southwest of the island of Faial in Portugal when the flames erupted, according to the country’s military.
All 22 crew members on board were rescued by members of the Portuguese Air Force and are in “good health,” according to Snowcape Car Carriers, the ship’s owner.
The Felicity Ace is still adrift in the Atlantic Ocean but Snowcape Car Carriers said an initial salvage team is estimated to arrive Friday.
“Further salvage assets are being readied to attend the vessel,” the company said.
It’s unclear what caused the fire.
A ship tracking website shows that the Felicity Ace was en route to Rhode Island.
The fire comes as car manufacturers grapple with inventory issues brought on by the chip shortage.
“Our immediate thoughts are of relief that the 22 crew of the merchant ship ‘Felicity Ace’ are safe and well,” Porsche said in a statement. “We are in contact with the shipping company and the details of the cars on board are now known. While it remains too early to confirm what occurred and next steps, we are – along with our colleagues at Porsche AG – supporting our customers and our dealers as best we can to find solutions.”
Volkswagen confirmed to ABC News that it too had cars on the vessel.
“We are in contact with the shipping company to get more information about the incident,” the German automaker said.
(NEW YORK) — The United States continues to warn that Russia could invade Ukraine “any day” amid escalating tensions in the region, with President Joe Biden telling reporters Thursday that the threat is now “very high.”
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday, making urgent remarks to the U.N. Security Council, challenged Moscow to commit to no invasion.
More than 150,000 Russian troops are estimated to be massed near Ukraine’s borders, U.S. officials said. While Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin claim that some troops have begun to withdraw, Biden said more Russian forces have moved in, contrary to Moscow’s claims.
It remains unclear whether Putin has made a decision to attack his ex-Soviet neighbor.
Russia has denied it plans to invade and issued new demands Thursday that the U.S. and NATO bar Ukraine from joining the military alliance.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Feb 19, 9:51 am
Vice President meets with Ukrainian President in Munich
Vice President Kamala Harris and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met in Munich for the first time, just one day after President Joe Biden said it wouldn’t be wise for him to leave his country.
Harris told Zelenskyy this is a “decisive moment” in history, making this an “important meeting” for them to be having, among other reasons.
Harris reiterated the U.S. position on the sovereignty of Ukraine and warned, again, of sanctions if Russia invades.
“If Russia further invades your country, as I mentioned earlier today, we will impose swift and severe economic sanctions. We have been clear about that. We are also clear that we would prefer that this would be resolved in a diplomatic way, and we have remained open to a diplomatic path to resolution. However, if Russia takes aggressive action against Ukraine, we are prepared to implement and to do that work in a unified way with our allies around the world,” Harris said.
Speaking through a translator, Zelenskyy said that the only thing his country wants is to have “peace” and expressed his gratitude to the US for its support, including defense capabilities.
Feb 19, 9:17 am
Vice President Harris addresses Munich Security Conference
Vice President Kamala Harris addressed the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, just hours after President Joe Biden said he is convinced Russian President Vladimir Putin has decided to invade Ukraine.
“I am certain we all recognize this year’s gathering is unlike those of the recent past, not since the end of the Cold War as this forum convened under such dire circumstances today, as we are all aware, the foundation of European security is under direct threat in Ukraine,” Harris told the crowd.
Harris laid out how the United States believes an invasion would get under way.
“Russia will plead ignorance and innocence. It will create false pretext for invasion, and it will amass troops and firepower in plain sight we now receive reports of what appears to be provocations and we see Russia spreading disinformation, lies and propaganda. Nonetheless, in a deliberate and coordinated effort, we together are one, exposing the truth and two, speaking with a unifying voice,” Harris said.
Harris reiterated that the U.S. has worked to find a way to de-escalate and remains open to diplomacy, but Russia’s actions do not match their words and would pay a price if they attack, she said.
“And let me be clear: I can say with absolute certainty, if Russia further invades Ukraine, the United States together with our allies and partners will impose significant and unprecedented economic costs,” Harris said.
Harris was joined by a bipartisan group of Democrats and Republicans to show U.S. commitment to the NATO partnership.
Harris also noted U.S. efforts to bolster military posture, stressing, “our forces will not be deployed to fight inside Ukraine. But they will defend every inch of NATO territory since Russia launched its proxy war against Ukraine.”
Feb 19, 7:20 am
Putin oversees missile drill from Moscow
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has overseen strategic missile drills, amid the ongoing tensions around Ukraine, watching a barrage of practice launches of several of Russia’s most advanced weapons, including hypersonic weapons and an intercontinental ballistic missile.
Russian state media showed Putin watching the volley of missile launches in a control center in Moscow, sitting alongside Belarus’ authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko, who is also hosting huge Russian military exercises in his country amid U.S. warnings the Kremlin may launch an attack on Kyiv.
The drills included launches of two hypersonic missiles, the Kinzhal from a fighter jet and a Zircon anti-ship missile from a warship.
A Yars ICBM was launched from Russia’s Kapustin Yar site and a Sineva ballistic missile fired from a submarine in the Barents Sea, Russia’s defense ministry said.
Russia’s military also released video showing the launches of a Kalibr cruise missile and an Islander ballistic missile.
Putin stages the demonstrative drills as tensions continued to escalate in eastern Ukraine, amid warnings from the US Russian preparing to invade the country within the coming days.
The Russian president has previously trumpeted the missiles as the most advanced in the world.
Feb 19, 6:12 am
Ukraine’s foreign minister to meet Blinken in Washington
Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, is expected to meet with Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Washington on Tuesday, Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said.
Kuleba is scheduled to address the U.N. General Assembly in New York the following day.
Feb 19, 3:54 am
Russia-backed separatists declare ‘general mobilization’
A leader of the Russian-controlled separatists in eastern Ukraine declared a “general mobilization” on Saturday, according to Russian state news agencies.
The head of the separatists’ self-proclaimed People’s Republic of Donetsk, Denis Pushilin, made the announcement.
Pushilin’s comments come after the separatists yesterday announced mass evacuations and warned of an imminent Ukrainian “offensive” amid fears Russia is moving to stage a pretext to attack Ukraine, cloaking it as aid to the separatists.
Feb 18, 8:05 pm
40 to 50% of Russian troops in attack position: US official
About 40 to 50% of Russia’s troops are in “attack positions” near the border with Ukraine, a U.S. official told ABC News.
There are about 150,000 troops on the border area, including 125 battalion tactical groups, or BTGs, the official said.
These BTGs number between 750 and 1,000 personnel each and are specifically outfitted as combat forces. The forces include every capability needed to conduct a combat operation, according to the official.
Feb 18, 7:38 pm
‘I don’t believe it’s a bluff,’ Defense Secretary Austin says
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told ABC “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz that Russian President Vladimir Putin has a number of options available to him and could attack Ukraine in short order.
“This is not a bluff,” he said in the exclusive interview.
“I think he’s assembled the right kinds of things that you would need to conduct a successful invasion,” Austin added.
Raddatz’s full interview with Austin airs Sunday on a special edition of “This Week” from Lviv, Ukraine.
Feb 18, 6:28 pm
FBI warns US industry officials and governors about potential cyber attacks
Homeland security and FBI officials in the last few days have quietly been briefing private industry and government officials to shore up and focus on cybersecurity in anticipation of a possible Russian invasion, law enforcement sources told ABC News.
On Thursday, senior law enforcement and homeland officials briefed U.S. banking leaders and on Friday they briefed some of the nation’s governors to take action and get the word out, the source said.
DHS and FBI officials urged state officials to shore up their cyber infrastructure, according to the source.
Feb 18, 6:00 pm
Top Putin ally accuses Ukrainian president of provoking war
Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of Russia’s parliament and a key ally of Vladimir Putin, accused Ukrainian President president Volodymyr Zelenskyy of “provoking the start of a large war,”
in a social media post.
Volodin accused the Ukrainian president of “firing on peaceful citizens,” without any evidence.
“Russia doesn’t want war. It has said there many times before and our President Vladimir Putin is saying it today. But if a threat arises to the lives of Russian citizens and compatriots…our country will rise to their defense,” Volodin wrote on his personal Telegram channel.
Volodin also accused the U.S. of laying the groundwork for an attack on Russian-backed separatists by increasing its rhetoric against Russia.
Feb 18, 5:26 pm
Biden says Putin has made a decision to invade Ukraine
President Biden provided an update on the ongoing situation between Ukraine and Russia and reiterated that he believes that an invasion will happen in the coming days.
Biden cited intelligence reports but said that diplomacy is still on the table to prevent any armed conflict.
“We’re calling out Russia’s plans loudly and repeatedly, not because we want a conflict but we’re doing everything in our power to remove any reason that Russia may give to justify invading Ukraine,” he said.
Biden said that the U.S. will not send troops, but is committed to economic sanctions and providing Ukraine with weapons and support if there is an invasion.
“Russia has a choice between war and all of the suffering it will bring and diplomacy,” he said.
Feb 18, 4:10 pm
White House, UK claim Russia took part in cyber attacks on Ukraine banks
Anne Neuberger, deputy national security adviser, told reporters during a news conference Friday that U.S. intelligence has determined that Russian cyber actors have likely targeted the Ukrainian government.
Specifically, Neuberger alleged the actors used DDoS attacks on Ukrainian Ministry of Defense and state owned banks this week.
“We have technical information that the Russian Main Intelligence Directorate, or GRU, was seen transmitting high volumes of communication to Ukraine based IP addresses and domains. We’ve shared the underlying intelligence with Ukraine and with our European partners,” she said.
Neuberger said the attacks were of “limited impact” but she reiterated calls on the American private sector to be alert.
“If Russia attacks the United States or allies through asymmetric activities, like disruptive cyber attacks against our companies are critical infrastructure, we are prepared to respond,” she said.
Later in the afternoon, the British government also alleged that the GRU was behind the DDoS attacks in Ukraine.
Feb 18, 3:33 pm
UK temporarily suspends operations at its embassy in Kyiv
The United Kingdom is the latest Western nation to suspend operations at its embassy in Kyiv.
The British government said it is moving temporarily relocating its personnel to its embassy office in Lviv.
The U.S., Canada, and Australia have previously announced temporarily leaving their embassies in Kyiv and will operate out of Lviv.
Feb 18, 2:09 pm
US, Ukraine reject claims by Russia of attack in city
The U.S. and Ukrainian governments are rejecting what they say are false claims from Russia and Russian-controlled separatists in eastern Ukraine of an attack on territory they control.
A State Department spokesperson warned the Russian and separatists’ claims are the type of “false flag operation” that Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned Russia would use to attack Ukraine.
“Announcements like these are further attempts to obscure through lies and disinformation that Russia is the aggressor in this conflict,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba also “categorically” denied claims that Kyiv is preparing an offensive in the provinces, known as Donbas — calling it “Russian disinformation.”
False Russian claims of a humanitarian crisis exploded Friday evening, starting with separatists announcing “mass evacuations” of civilians and flooding Russian state media with footage of children being lined up to depart.
The governor of Russia’s Rostov region, which borders Donbas, appealed to Vladimir Putin for help with a “refugee crisis,” with Putin dispatching his emergency management minister — the kind of staged high-level “emergency meeting” that Blinken warned about during remarks to the United Nations Thursday.
“It is also cynical and cruel to use human beings as pawns to distract the world from the fact that Russia is building up its forces in preparation for an attack. Russia is the sole instigator of these tensions and is threatening the people of Ukraine,” the State Department spokesperson said.
Feb 18, 11:24 am
Biden to speak to nation on Ukraine crisis at 4 p.m.
The White House has announced President Joe Biden will speak to the nation at 4 p.m. on the Ukraine crisis.
It says he will give an update on “continued efforts to pursue deterrence and diplomacy, and Russia’s buildup of military troops on the border of Ukraine.”
The remarks will follow a phone call Biden is holding with transatlantic leaders, scheduled for 2:30 p.m.
Earlier Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed U.S. claims Russia was preparing to invade Ukraine within days and reiterated his demand that the Ukrainian government engage in direct talks with Russia-backed separatists.
Feb 18, 10:52 am
Putin warns of ‘escalation’ in Donbas, urges Ukraine to negotiate with separatists
Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Friday that the situation in eastern Ukraine is escalating, amid fears Moscow is seeking a pretext to attack its ex-Soviet neighbor.
“Unfortunately, right now we are seeing, on the contrary, an escalation of the Donbas situation,” Putin said at a joint press conference in Moscow on Friday, following a meeting with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
Putin reiterated Russia’s demand that the Ukrainian government engage in direct talks with the Russia-backed separatists in Donbas, a breakaway region of southeastern Ukraine.
“All Kyiv has to do is sit down at the negotiating table with Donbas representatives and agree on the political, military, economic and humanitarian measures to end the conflict,” he said. “The sooner it happens the better.”
Russia has demanded for years that Kyiv negotiate with the separatists directly, but Ukraine has always refused because it views them as Kremlin puppets and it would legitimize Moscow’s false narrative that the ongoing conflict is exclusively a civil war and does not involve Russia.
Putin also stated that the United States and other members of NATO “are not disposed to properly accept” Russia’s key demands for security guarantees that Ukraine will never join NATO and that the military alliance pull its troops back from Eastern Europe. He said Moscow will not accept talking about the other proposals the U.S. has put forward without discussing these top requests.
“We are prepared to follow a negotiating track, on the condition that all aspects are considered in a package, not separately from Russia’s principal proposals, whose implementation is an unconditional priority for us,” he told reporters.
Putin also said he “paid no attention” to the reports in Western media of Feb. 16 being the alleged date of a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine that U.S. officials had given, calling it a “hoax.”
“I honestly just didn’t pay attention to it. There are plenty of hoaxes. Constantly reacting to them is more trouble than it’s worth,” he added. “We do whatever we see fit and will do so further down the road. Of course, we watch what is going on in the world and around us. But we have clear and comprehensible guidelines that correspond with the national interests of the people of Russia and the Russian state.”
Meanwhile, Lukashenko insisted that neither Belarus or Russia want a war and blamed the current tensions on the West. He said the massive joint military exercises currently being held in Belarus with Russia are directed at reinforcing their borders due to “growing military danger,” which he claimed was caused in part by Western countries “pumping Ukraine” with weapons.
“With the military danger growing on our borders and Ukraine being pumped with weapons, Belarus and Russia are forced to look for appropriate ways to repel potential attacks,” Lukashenko told reporters.
But the Belarusian leader also warned that, for the first time in decades, Europe is on the edge of a conflict that could “draw in almost the entire continent.”
“You see that it does not depend even on our neighbors, including Ukraine, anymore. It is also obvious to you who the exacerbation of tensions near our borders depends on,” Lukashenko said. “For the first time in decades, we have ended up on the verge of a conflict, which, unfortunately, is capable of drawing in almost the entire continent, like a vortex.”
“Today, we’re witnessing, in all its glory, irresponsibility and, forgive my frankness, the stupidity of a number of Western politicians,” he added, “and the behavior denying logic and reasonable explanations of the leaders of our neighboring states and their downright morbid desire to walk right on the edge.”
Feb 18, 9:55 am
Blinken: US ‘deeply concerned’ Russia ‘has embarked on’ wrong path
The United States is “deeply concerned” that Russia “has embarked on” the wrong path, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday.
Speaking to reporters at the Munich Security Conference in Germany, Blinken said Russia has deployed “additional forces” near neighboring Ukraine, “including leading edge forces that would be part of any aggression.” When asked about the reports of more shelling in eastern Ukraine, Blinken said it’s “part of a scenario that is already in play” for Moscow to claim a pretext for invasion.
“Even as we are doing everything we possibly can to make sure that this diplomatic path, that this has to resolved — differences have to be resolved through dialogue, through diplomacy,” Blinken told reporters, “we are deeply concerned that that is not the path that Russia has embarked on and that everything we’re seeing, including what you’ve described in the last 24 to 48 hours, is part of a scenario that is already in play of creating false provocations, of then having to respond to those provocations and then ultimately committing new aggression against Ukraine.”
Still, Blinken said he remains “hopeful” that the threat of sanctions and the supply of military aid to regional allies from the U.S. and others “will have an impact.”
Feb 18, 9:40 am
Russia-backed separatists announce mass evacuations
Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine have declared a mass evacuation of civilians, while accusing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of preparing to launch a full-scale invasion against the breakaway regions in the coming days.
Ukraine has immediately denied the claim, but the mass evacuation order is worrying as it raises the prospect the separatists may allege a Ukrainian offensive in the coming days that Russia would use as a pretext to attack its ex-Soviet neighbor.
Denis Pushilin, leader of the self-proclaimed People’s Republic of Donetsk in a breakaway region of southeastern Ukraine known as Donbas, delivered a public address to residents on Friday saying mass, centralized evacuations were now being organized, with women, children and the elderly going first.
Pushilin said the evacuation would be “temporary” and that Russia has agreed to provide evacuation centers in the neighboring Rostov region to house evacuees. The separatists’ leader also called on all able-bodied men to take up arms.
“I again appeal to all men able to hold a rifle in their hands, to come to the defense of their land,” Pushilin said in a televised address.
The announcement came amid a sharp escalation along the front line between Russia-backed separatist forces and Ukrainian government troops, with Ukraine accusing the separatists of unleashing a major bombardment in the past two days. Heavy firing has been reported since Thursday coming from the separatist areas, while the separatists have accused Ukrainian troops of firing on them.
-ABC News’ Patrick Reevell
Feb 18, 8:40 am
US envoy: Russia has up to 190,000 forces, including separatists, menacing Ukraine
The United States believes Russia now has “probably” as many as 190,000 troops, including Russian-backed separatists forces, according to a U.S. envoy, in and around Ukraine amid fears that Russian capabilities of a full-fledged invasion continue to grow.
“We assess that Russia probably has massed between 169,000 to 190,000 personnel in and near Ukraine as compared with about 100,000 on January 30,” Michael Carpenter, U.S. ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), said in a statement Friday. “This estimate includes military troops along the border, in Belarus, and in occupied Crimea; Russian National Guard and other internal security units deployed to these areas; and Russian-led forces in eastern Ukraine.”
Unlike this latest assessment, previous estimations by U.S. officials did not include separatist forces in eastern Ukraine.
“While Russia has sought to downplay or deceive the world about their ground and air preparations, the Russian military has publicized its large-scale naval exercises in the Black Sea, Baltic Sea and the Arctic,” Carpenter said. “Russia has publicly said the Black Sea exercise alone involves more than 30 ships, and we assess that amphibious landing ships from the Northern and Baltic Fleets were sent to the Black Sea to augment forces there.”
The OSCE is a Cold War-era European security forum that has deployed a war monitor in eastern Ukraine for years and hosted talks on the current crisis with Russia. Its foundational documents have been used selectively by Moscow to paint Ukraine and NATO as a threat to Russia’s security, even as its envoy in Vienna has largely dismissed dialogue there.
Earlier this week, Ukraine requested an emergency OSCE meeting to demand Russia explain its massive military buildup after Moscow ignored Kyiv’s inquiry. Russia skipped Wednesday’s session just as it did Friday’s, where Carpenter delivered these remarks.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov told his country’s parliament Friday that they assess Russia has about 149,000 troops near their borders.
-ABC News Conor Finnegan and Cindy Smith
Feb 18, 7:45 am
US to sell Poland $6 billion of tanks, more military aid
The United States announced Friday its plans to sell $6 billion of new military aid to Poland, amid the threat of war between neighboring Ukraine and Russia.
The proposed sale includes 250 Abrams main battle tanks, 250 short-range jamming systems that counter improvised explosive devices, 26 combat recovery vehicles, nearly 800 machines guns and much more, according to a press release from the U.S. Department of State.
The announcement came as U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin met with his Polish counterpart in Warsaw to discuss concerns regarding the massive buildup of Russian troops near Ukraine, which U.S. and NATO officials say position Moscow for an imminent invasion. Poland is a key eastern European ally to the U.S. and a fellow member of NATO.
“Some of those forces [are] within 200 miles of the Polish border,” Austin said during a joint press conference in the Polish capital on Friday. “If Russia further invades Ukraine, Poland could see tens of thousands of displaced Ukrainians and others flowing across its border, trying to save themselves and their families from the scourge of war.”
Austin said the U.S. now has an additional 4,700 troops in Poland “who are prepared to respond to a range of contingencies.”
“They will work closely with our State Department and with Polish authorities should there be any need to help American citizens leave Ukraine,” he added.
The planned sale of more military aid to Poland “will support the foreign policy and national security of the United States by helping to improve the security of a NATO Ally that is a force for political stability and economic progress in Europe,” according to the State Department.
“The proposed sale will improve Poland’s capability to meet current and future threats by providing a credible force that is capable of deterring adversaries and participating in NATO operations,” the State Department said in a statement Friday. “Poland will have no difficulty absorbing this equipment into its armed forces.”
-ABC News’ Conor Finnegan
Feb 18, 6:21 am
Kremlin expresses concern about escalation in Donbas
Russia is concerned about the ongoing escalation of tensions in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine and believes the events unfolding there post a major potential threat, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday.
“What is happening in Donbas is very disquieting news, which provokes concern,” Peskov told reporters during a daily call. “It is potentially very dangerous.”
When asked how Putin has been sleeping amid the rising tensions, Peskov said: “Equally well.” He then added after a brief pause: “But with one eye open.”
-ABC News’ Anastasia Bagaeva
Feb 18, 5:56 am
Putin to oversee massive nuclear drills on Saturday
Russian President Vladimir Putin will personally oversee massive drills of his country’s strategic nuclear forces on Saturday, including test launches of ballistic and cruise missiles, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced Friday.
The defense ministry said in a statement that the drills were “planned” as part of large-scale military exercises currently taking place across Russia. Saturday’s drills are meant to check “the preparedness of military commands and crews of missile systems, warships and strategic bombers to accomplish their missions and at verifying the reliability of weapons of strategic nuclear and conventional forces,” according to the defense ministry.
“The exercise will involve forces and hardware belonging to the Aerospace Forces, the Southern Military District, the Strategic Missile Forces, the Northern Fleet, and the Black Sea Fleet,” the defense ministry said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin will be at the defense ministry’s Situational Center during the drills Saturday and that Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko might join him.
“Even test launches of this type are impossible without the head of state,” Peskov told reporters during a daily call Friday. “You all know about his famed ‘black briefcase,’ ‘the red button’ and so on.”
Peskov said the drills shouldn’t cause concern among other countries because they were notified of the upcoming exercises in advance.
When asked whether such drills could exacerbate tensions, Peskov replied: “Exercises and training launches of ballistic missiles are quite a regular training process. It is preceded by a whole series of notifications forwarded to different countries via various channels. All this is precisely regulated and no one has any questions or concerns.”
The drills will also coincide with the finale of the major joint military exercises in neighboring Belarus.
U.S. military officials have previously warned that Russia could conduct these drills now, saying the timing might be in order to signal to the West not to interfere in the event of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.
It’s also another opportunity for posturing as Putin has done many times before, placing himself at the end of demonstrations of military might. In recent years he has repeatedly hailed a range of new Russian nuclear super weapons, including a nuclear-powered cruise missile and hypersonic weapons.
-ABC News’ Anastasia Bagaeva and Patrick Reevell
Feb 18, 4:25 am
Lukashenko to meet Putin in Moscow
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Friday, as their countries continue to hold massive joint military exercises that Western countries fear could be used to cover up preparations for a possible invasion of neighboring Ukraine.
While Russia and Belarus have said that Russian troops will leave after the drills conclude Sunday, the United States remains concerned they may stay.
Earlier this week, Lukashenko indicated that he and Putin would decide at their meeting Friday how long Russian troops would stay in Belarus. Video released by Belarusian state media showed the authoritarian leader arriving at Moscow’s airport Friday morning.
Russia has moved an unprecedented number of troops into Belarus as part of its wider military build-up near Ukraine. There is an estimated 30,000 Russian troops in Belarus, which is only a few hours drive north of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.
Concerns have been heightened because Russia has moved most of the troops from its Eastern Military District in Russia’s Far East, some 6,000 miles away. Among them are many units required for an offensive, including long range artillery, fighter bombers, attack helicopters and airborne troops.
-ABC News’ Patrick Reevell
Feb 17, 9:28 pm
Biden to host meeting of allied leaders Friday: Canada PM’s office
President Joe Biden will host a closed-door meeting on Ukraine Friday with several U.S. allies, according to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office.
The leaders of France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Romania, the UK, the EU and NATO will participate in the meeting, Trudeau’s office said while sharing the prime minister’s Friday iterinary.
A White House official confirmed to ABC News that Biden will have a phone call Friday afternoon with transatlantic leaders “about Russia’s buildup of military troops on the border of Ukraine and our continued efforts to pursue deterrence and diplomacy.”
Also on Friday, Vice President Kamala Harris is scheduled to meet with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and hold a meeting with the leaders of the Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, as she travels to Germany for the annual Munich Security Conference, the White House said.
(NEW YORK) — The bridge that connects Hidalgo, Texas, to Reynosa, Mexico, has become a path of uncertainty and fear for thousands of families in search of opportunity.
Amid ongoing ambiguity over the U.S.’s immigration policies, an encampment of migrants has swelled to about 2,200 over the past year, according to estimates from nonprofits working in the area. The sea of tents is about a block away from the international bridge in the northern Mexican city of Reynosa.
Jessica Leon, a mother from El Salvador who has been in Reynosa for seven months with her young children, told ABC News that life in the camp is “dangerous” and “difficult.”
“We’re exposed to a lot of danger here — like the cartels, for example. Here, anyone can come in at any time. We’re extremely vulnerable to many dangers,” she said.
“I’m waiting for asylum, and we have been waiting for a long time. And when you don’t see results, you feel desperation,” Leon added.
As the families cope with difficult living conditions, the fate of their journeys partly depends on how long the Biden administration continues using Title 42, a policy beefed up by the Trump Administration during the pandemic. It allows U.S. Customs and Border Protection to expel thousands of migrants amid the COVID-19 pandemic without giving them a chance to apply for asylum within the United States.
Title 42 refers to a clause of the 1944 Public Health Services Law that allows the government to prevent migrants from entering the U.S. during public health emergencies; however, advocates challenging the Administration’s use of the order in court have argued that U.S. law does not allow the government to expel individuals seeking asylum without due process.
Customs and Border Protection encountered 1.7 million people at the U.S.-Mexico border in 2021, according to data released by the agency last month — the highest ever over the span of a year. About 1.2 million of those encountered were expelled under Title 42, CBP said.
.@ABCMireya speaks exclusively to U.S. border patrol chief who is preparing his officers for a possible shift in policies, as migrant families continue to be in limbo in Mexico. “I don’t have enough agents, I know I don’t have enough equipment,” he says. https://t.co/x8J07soSZRpic.twitter.com/RHhwEhUfN1
U.S. Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz spoke exclusively with ABC News Correspondent Mireya Villarreal about the growing issues along the border. While he acknowledges Title 42 is a tool they’d like to keep using, his agency is preparing for it to eventually go away.
“We know it’s not going to last forever as the health pandemic starts to wane… that we may not have Title 42 forever,” Ortiz said. “So we have to make adjustments to be able to prepare for that. And so what I’m doing is making sure I have processing coordinators that can fulfill some of those duties and responsibilities and then making sure our agents are safe.”
“You know, one point I had two, three thousand agents in a quarantine status almost every day,” he added. “Right now, I may have two or three hundred in a quarantine status. So we’re doing better at protecting ourselves. And I think that’s some of those things that have to happen for us to be successful.”
Chief Ortiz said he recognizes morale is waning and regularly reminds agents not to get caught up in policy talks.
“I know I don’t have enough agents, I know I don’t have enough equipment, and then I know I need to close some gates and gaps. That would put us in a better position for success,” he added.
Title 42 was ramped up during the pandemic by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In a statement to ABC News, CDC representatives said every 60 days the agency reviews “the status of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated public health risks.”
The latest assessment completed at the end of January determined that the use of Title 42 remains “in effect,” the CDC said, citing the impact of the pandemic and a “surge in cases and hospitalizations since December due to the highly transmissible Omicron variant.”
Back across the border in Reynosa, Mexico, Felicia Rangel-Samponaro, director of The Sidewalk School, an American nonprofit organization that runs solely on donations, told ABC News that the school “had to grow at a very rapid pace” to accommodate a rise in children asylum seekers from various countries.
The organization provides clothing and food to families who lack resources and live in conditions that make it exceedingly difficult to cook.
Rangel-Samponaro said that she has watched the encampment grow each day as the numbers of migrants swelled and said that the problem “never stopped” under the Biden administration.
“There are no white asylum seekers in this camp, and that’s what people should be asking. Why is it different for white asylum seekers? Why is it only brown and black people you see living in dirt 24-7, now for almost a year?” she said.
A few miles away, pastor Hector Silva runs The Senda De Vida Shelter — a part of the Senda De Vida Ministry House, which has been providing support for migrant families for more than two decades.
Silva said that most of the families who cross the border return after they run out of money and the shelter provides them with food and clothing as they cope with a life in limbo.
Jessica Leon has a brother living in Houston, Texas, and hopes to give her children a “good future” in the U.S. because in El Salvador they struggled with poverty and a lack of employment opportunities.
Leon said that she and her children live in a tent with one mattress that her children share, while she sleeps on the floor.
“For love and to realize our dreams, we endure, but it’s very difficult,” she said.
Next week, the Biden administration plans to begin processing and admitting migrants forced to wait in Mexico under the Trump administration’s “Migrant Protection Protocols,” three administration officials told ABC News.
The Biden administration is currently locked in a legal battle with a coalition of civil rights groups, led by the American Civil Liberties Union, over its use of Title 42.
The White House defended its use of the public health order in federal court as recently as last month, arguing that lifting it would lead to overcrowding at DHS facilities, and that an influx of migrants poses a public health risk.
Rangel-Samponaro said that migrants caught in limbo hope that changes in U.S. immigration policies will give them a chance for a new beginning.
“What you’re seeing is hope that Biden takes away Title 42, which he can at any second if he chooses to,” Rangel-Sampanaro said. Eliminating the use of Title 42 would give the migrants a chance to make a claim of asylum, he said.
And for families living in the encampment in Reynosa, the hope of a better future for their children keeps them going.
“Trust me, it’s hard, please keep us in mind because there are a lot of families suffering. The kids are the most vulnerable,” Leon said.
ABC News’ William Gallego, Luke Barr and Quinn Owen contributed to this report.
(PARIS) — ABC News has learned that disgraced modeling agent and Jeffrey Epstein associate Jean Luc Brunel died by suicide in his prison cell Saturday night in Paris.
The Paris prosecutor’s office confirmed to ABC News that Brunel was found dead in his prison cell around 1:00 a.m. local time at La Sante Prison.
Jean Luc Brunel’s lawyers tell ABC News Brunel hung himself.
The prosecutor’s office declined to confirm those details of Brunel’s death.
In December 2020, Brunel was charged with rape of minors over the age of 15 and sexual harassment — a crime in France.
In a statement on their client’s death which was in French and sent to and translated by ABC News, Brunel’s lawyers said: “[Brunel’s] distress (despair) was the one of a 75-year-old man who was destroyed by the judicial-media lynching and we should question it. Our client firmly asserted he never abused any women. He made multiple efforts to prove it.”
“His decision was not led by a feeling of guilt but by a deep feeling of injustice,” Brunel’s attorneys Mathias Chichportich, Marianne Abgrall and Christophe Ingrain added.
A delegate from the Force Ouvriere Union for France’s Penitentiaries, Erwan Saoudi, further confirmed Brunel’s death.
Saoudi said the prison’s procedure are that prison guard conduct five check on prisoners every night. Saoudi said while there was no closed-circuit TV inside Brunel’s cell — video in prison corridors proves that prison guards did not miss any of these checks.
Saoudi said Brunel died by suicide just after the guard round [of checks] “which shows the strong will of Jean-Luc Brunel to kill himself.” Saoudi added that Brunel was not on suicide watch.
Brunel was initially arrested in Charles De Gaulle Airport in December 2020. According to Paris prosecutors, Brunel was initially held in a probe into the rape of minors and trafficking of minors for sexual exploitation in association with their probe into possible crimes committed by Epstein. Days later, Brunel was charged with rape of minors over the age of 15 and sexual harassment. Brunel maintained he was innocent.
In January 2021, Virginia Giuffre flew to Paris to provide testimony at a closed-door hearing on Brunel’s detention.
Giuffre, in the same court filing in 2014 in which she first accused Prince Andrew of sexually assaulting her, claimed to have been trafficked by Epstein and his girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell to Brunel.
“The suicide of Jean Luc Brunel, who abused me and countless girls and young women, ends another chapter. I am disappointed that I was not able to face him in a final trial and hold him accountable for his actions, but gratified that I was able to face him in person last year in Paris, to keep him in prison,” Virginia Giuffre said in a statement issued though her lawyer, Sigrid McCawley.
Brunel had denied Giuffre’s allegations.
ABC News’ James Hill contributed to this report.
If you are struggling with thoughts of suicide or worried about a friend or loved one, help is available. Call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 [TALK] for free, confidential emotional support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You can also reach the Trevor Project at 1-866-488-7386 or the Crisis Text Line by texting “START” to 741741.
(NEW YORK) — The United States continues to warn that Russia could invade Ukraine “any day” amid escalating tensions in the region, with President Joe Biden telling reporters Thursday that the threat is now “very high.”
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday, making urgent remarks to the U.N. Security Council, challenged Moscow to commit to no invasion.
More than 150,000 Russian troops are estimated to be massed near Ukraine’s borders, U.S. officials said. While Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin claim that some troops have begun to withdraw, Biden said more Russian forces have moved in, contrary to Moscow’s claims.
It remains unclear whether Putin has made a decision to attack his ex-Soviet neighbor.
Russia has denied it plans to invade and issued new demands Thursday that the U.S. and NATO bar Ukraine from joining the military alliance.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Feb 18, 10:52 am
Putin warns of ‘escalation’ in Donbas, urges Ukraine to negotiate with separatists
Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Friday that the situation in eastern Ukraine is escalating, amid fears Moscow is seeking a pretext to attack its ex-Soviet neighbor.
“Unfortunately, right now we are seeing, on the contrary, an escalation of the Donbas situation,” Putin said at a joint press conference in Moscow on Friday, following a meeting with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
Putin reiterated Russia’s demand that the Ukrainian government engage in direct talks with the Russia-backed separatists in Donbas, a breakaway region of southeastern Ukraine.
“All Kyiv has to do is sit down at the negotiating table with Donbas representatives and agree on the political, military, economic and humanitarian measures to end the conflict,” he said. “The sooner it happens the better.”
Russia has demanded for years that Kyiv negotiate with the separatists directly, but Ukraine has always refused because it views them as Kremlin puppets and it would legitimize Moscow’s false narrative that the ongoing conflict is exclusively a civil war and does not involve Russia.
Putin also stated that the United States and other members of NATO “are not disposed to properly accept” Russia’s key demands for security guarantees that Ukraine will never join NATO and that the military alliance pull its troops back from Eastern Europe. He said Moscow will not accept talking about the other proposals the U.S. has put forward without discussing these top requests.
“We are prepared to follow a negotiating track, on the condition that all aspects are considered in a package, not separately from Russia’s principal proposals, whose implementation is an unconditional priority for us,” he told reporters.
Putin also said he “paid no attention” to the reports in Western media of Feb. 16 being the alleged date of a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine that U.S. officials had given, calling it a “hoax.”
“I honestly just didn’t pay attention to it. There are plenty of hoaxes. Constantly reacting to them is more trouble than it’s worth,” he added. “We do whatever we see fit and will do so further down the road. Of course, we watch what is going on in the world and around us. But we have clear and comprehensible guidelines that correspond with the national interests of the people of Russia and the Russian state.”
Meanwhile, Lukashenko insisted that neither Belarus or Russia want a war and blamed the current tensions on the West. He said the massive joint military exercises currently being held in Belarus with Russia are directed at reinforcing their borders due to “growing military danger,” which he claimed was caused in part by Western countries “pumping Ukraine” with weapons.
“With the military danger growing on our borders and Ukraine being pumped with weapons, Belarus and Russia are forced to look for appropriate ways to repel potential attacks,” Lukashenko told reporters.
But the Belarusian leader also warned that, for the first time in decades, Europe is on the edge of a conflict that could “draw in almost the entire continent.”
“You see that it does not depend even on our neighbors, including Ukraine, anymore. It is also obvious to you who the exacerbation of tensions near our borders depends on,” Lukashenko said. “For the first time in decades, we have ended up on the verge of a conflict, which, unfortunately, is capable of drawing in almost the entire continent, like a vortex.”
“Today, we’re witnessing, in all its glory, irresponsibility and, forgive my frankness, the stupidity of a number of Western politicians,” he added, “and the behavior denying logic and reasonable explanations of the leaders of our neighboring states and their downright morbid desire to walk right on the edge.”
Feb 18, 9:55 am
Blinken: US ‘deeply concerned’ Russia ‘has embarked on’ wrong path
The United States is “deeply concerned” that Russia “has embarked on” the wrong path, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday.
Speaking to reporters at the Munich Security Conference in Germany, Blinken said Russia has deployed “additional forces” near neighboring Ukraine, “including leading edge forces that would be part of any aggression.” When asked about the reports of more shelling in eastern Ukraine, Blinken said it’s “part of a scenario that is already in play” for Moscow to claim a pretext for invasion.
“Even as we are doing everything we possibly can to make sure that this diplomatic path, that this has to resolved — differences have to be resolved through dialogue, through diplomacy,” Blinken told reporters, “we are deeply concerned that that is not the path that Russia has embarked on and that everything we’re seeing, including what you’ve described in the last 24 to 48 hours, is part of a scenario that is already in play of creating false provocations, of then having to respond to those provocations and then ultimately committing new aggression against Ukraine.”
Still, Blinken said he remains “hopeful” that the threat of sanctions and the supply of military aid to regional allies from the U.S. and others “will have an impact.”
Feb 18, 9:40 am
Russia-backed separatists announce mass evacuations
Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine have declared a mass evacuation of civilians, while accusing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of preparing to launch a full-scale invasion against the breakaway regions in the coming days.
Ukraine has immediately denied the claim, but the mass evacuation order is worrying as it raises the prospect the separatists may allege a Ukrainian offensive in the coming days that Russia would use as a pretext to attack its ex-Soviet neighbor.
Denis Pushilin, leader of the self-proclaimed People’s Republic of Donetsk in a breakaway region of southeastern Ukraine known as Donbas, delivered a public address to residents on Friday saying mass, centralized evacuations were now being organized, with women, children and the elderly going first.
Pushilin said the evacuation would be “temporary” and that Russia has agreed to provide evacuation centers in the neighboring Rostov region to house evacuees. The separatists’ leader also called on all able-bodied men to take up arms.
“I again appeal to all men able to hold a rifle in their hands, to come to the defense of their land,” Pushilin said in a televised address.
The announcement came amid a sharp escalation along the front line between Russia-backed separatist forces and Ukrainian government troops, with Ukraine accusing the separatists of unleashing a major bombardment in the past two days. Heavy firing has been reported since Thursday coming from the separatist areas, while the separatists have accused Ukrainian troops of firing on them.
-ABC News’ Patrick Reevell
Feb 18, 8:40 am
US envoy: Russia has up to 190,000 forces, including separatists, menacing Ukraine
The United States believes Russia now has “probably” as many as 190,000 troops, including Russian-backed separatists forces, according to a U.S. envoy, in and around Ukraine amid fears that Russian capabilities of a full-fledged invasion continue to grow.
“We assess that Russia probably has massed between 169,000 to 190,000 personnel in and near Ukraine as compared with about 100,000 on January 30,” Michael Carpenter, U.S. ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), said in a statement Friday. “This estimate includes military troops along the border, in Belarus, and in occupied Crimea; Russian National Guard and other internal security units deployed to these areas; and Russian-led forces in eastern Ukraine.”
Unlike this latest assessment, previous estimations by U.S. officials did not include separatist forces in eastern Ukraine.
“While Russia has sought to downplay or deceive the world about their ground and air preparations, the Russian military has publicized its large-scale naval exercises in the Black Sea, Baltic Sea and the Arctic,” Carpenter said. “Russia has publicly said the Black Sea exercise alone involves more than 30 ships, and we assess that amphibious landing ships from the Northern and Baltic Fleets were sent to the Black Sea to augment forces there.”
The OSCE is a Cold War-era European security forum that has deployed a war monitor in eastern Ukraine for years and hosted talks on the current crisis with Russia. Its foundational documents have been used selectively by Moscow to paint Ukraine and NATO as a threat to Russia’s security, even as its envoy in Vienna has largely dismissed dialogue there.
Earlier this week, Ukraine requested an emergency OSCE meeting to demand Russia explain its massive military buildup after Moscow ignored Kyiv’s inquiry. Russia skipped Wednesday’s session just as it did Friday’s, where Carpenter delivered these remarks.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov told his country’s parliament Friday that they assess Russia has about 149,000 troops near their borders.
-ABC News Conor Finnegan and Cindy Smith
Feb 18, 7:45 am
US to sell Poland $6 billion of tanks, more military aid
The United States announced Friday its plans to sell $6 billion of new military aid to Poland, amid the threat of war between neighboring Ukraine and Russia.
The proposed sale includes 250 Abrams main battle tanks, 250 short-range jamming systems that counter improvised explosive devices, 26 combat recovery vehicles, nearly 800 machines guns and much more, according to a press release from the U.S. Department of State.
The announcement came as U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin met with his Polish counterpart in Warsaw to discuss concerns regarding the massive buildup of Russian troops near Ukraine, which U.S. and NATO officials say position Moscow for an imminent invasion. Poland is a key eastern European ally to the U.S. and a fellow member of NATO.
“Some of those forces [are] within 200 miles of the Polish border,” Austin said during a joint press conference in the Polish capital on Friday. “If Russia further invades Ukraine, Poland could see tens of thousands of displaced Ukrainians and others flowing across its border, trying to save themselves and their families from the scourge of war.”
Austin said the U.S. now has an additional 4,700 troops in Poland “who are prepared to respond to a range of contingencies.”
“They will work closely with our State Department and with Polish authorities should there be any need to help American citizens leave Ukraine,” he added.
The planned sale of more military aid to Poland “will support the foreign policy and national security of the United States by helping to improve the security of a NATO Ally that is a force for political stability and economic progress in Europe,” according to the State Department.
“The proposed sale will improve Poland’s capability to meet current and future threats by providing a credible force that is capable of deterring adversaries and participating in NATO operations,” the State Department said in a statement Friday. “Poland will have no difficulty absorbing this equipment into its armed forces.”
-ABC News’ Conor Finnegan
Feb 18, 6:21 am
Kremlin expresses concern about escalation in Donbas
Russia is concerned about the ongoing escalation of tensions in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine and believes the events unfolding there post a major potential threat, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday.
“What is happening in Donbas is very disquieting news, which provokes concern,” Peskov told reporters during a daily call. “It is potentially very dangerous.”
When asked how Putin has been sleeping amid the rising tensions, Peskov said: “Equally well.” He then added after a brief pause: “But with one eye open.”
-ABC News’ Anastasia Bagaeva
Feb 18, 5:56 am
Putin to oversee massive nuclear drills on Saturday
Russian President Vladimir Putin will personally oversee massive drills of his country’s strategic nuclear forces on Saturday, including test launches of ballistic and cruise missiles, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced Friday.
The defense ministry said in a statement that the drills were “planned” as part of large-scale military exercises currently taking place across Russia. Saturday’s drills are meant to check “the preparedness of military commands and crews of missile systems, warships and strategic bombers to accomplish their missions and at verifying the reliability of weapons of strategic nuclear and conventional forces,” according to the defense ministry.
“The exercise will involve forces and hardware belonging to the Aerospace Forces, the Southern Military District, the Strategic Missile Forces, the Northern Fleet, and the Black Sea Fleet,” the defense ministry said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin will be at the defense ministry’s Situational Center during the drills Saturday and that Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko might join him.
“Even test launches of this type are impossible without the head of state,” Peskov told reporters during a daily call Friday. “You all know about his famed ‘black briefcase,’ ‘the red button’ and so on.”
Peskov said the drills shouldn’t cause concern among other countries because they were notified of the upcoming exercises in advance.
When asked whether such drills could exacerbate tensions, Peskov replied: “Exercises and training launches of ballistic missiles are quite a regular training process. It is preceded by a whole series of notifications forwarded to different countries via various channels. All this is precisely regulated and no one has any questions or concerns.”
The drills will also coincide with the finale of the major joint military exercises in neighboring Belarus.
U.S. military officials have previously warned that Russia could conduct these drills now, saying the timing might be in order to signal to the West not to interfere in the event of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.
It’s also another opportunity for posturing as Putin has done many times before, placing himself at the end of demonstrations of military might. In recent years he has repeatedly hailed a range of new Russian nuclear super weapons, including a nuclear-powered cruise missile and hypersonic weapons.
-ABC News’ Anastasia Bagaeva and Patrick Reevell
Feb 18, 4:25 am
Lukashenko to meet Putin in Moscow
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Friday, as their countries continue to hold massive joint military exercises that Western countries fear could be used to cover up preparations for a possible invasion of neighboring Ukraine.
While Russia and Belarus have said that Russian troops will leave after the drills conclude Sunday, the United States remains concerned they may stay.
Earlier this week, Lukashenko indicated that he and Putin would decide at their meeting Friday how long Russian troops would stay in Belarus. Video released by Belarusian state media showed the authoritarian leader arriving at Moscow’s airport Friday morning.
Russia has moved an unprecedented number of troops into Belarus as part of its wider military build-up near Ukraine. There is an estimated 30,000 Russian troops in Belarus, which is only a few hours drive north of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.
Concerns have been heightened because Russia has moved most of the troops from its Eastern Military District in Russia’s Far East, some 6,000 miles away. Among them are many units required for an offensive, including long range artillery, fighter bombers, attack helicopters and airborne troops.
-ABC News’ Patrick Reevell
Feb 17, 9:28 pm
Biden to host meeting of allied leaders Friday: Canada PM’s office
President Joe Biden will host a closed-door meeting on Ukraine Friday with several U.S. allies, according to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office.
The leaders of France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Romania, the UK, the EU and NATO will participate in the meeting, Trudeau’s office said while sharing the prime minister’s Friday iterinary.
A White House official confirmed to ABC News that Biden will have a phone call Friday afternoon with transatlantic leaders “about Russia’s buildup of military troops on the border of Ukraine and our continued efforts to pursue deterrence and diplomacy.”
Also on Friday, Vice President Kamala Harris is scheduled to meet with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and hold a meeting with the leaders of the Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, as she travels to Germany for the annual Munich Security Conference, the White House said.
(NEW YORK) — The United States continues to warn that Russia could invade Ukraine “any day” amid escalating tensions in the region, with President Joe Biden telling reporters Thursday that the threat is now “very high.”
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday, making urgent remarks to the U.N. Security Council, challenged Moscow to commit to no invasion.
More than 150,000 Russian troops are estimated to be massed near Ukraine’s borders, U.S. officials said. While Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin claim that some troops have begun to withdraw, Biden said more Russian forces have moved in, contrary to Moscow’s claims.
It remains unclear whether Putin has made a decision to attack his ex-Soviet neighbor.
Russia has denied it plans to invade and issued new demands Thursday that the U.S. and NATO bar Ukraine from joining the military alliance.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Feb 18, 7:45 am
US to sell Poland $6 billion of tanks, more military aid
The United States announced Friday its plans to sell $6 billion of new military aid to Poland, amid the threat of war between neighboring Ukraine and Russia.
The proposed sale includes 250 Abrams main battle tanks, 250 short-range jamming systems that counter improvised explosive devices, 26 combat recovery vehicles, nearly 800 machines guns and much more, according to a press release from the U.S. Department of State.
The announcement came as U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin met with his Polish counterpart in Warsaw to discuss concerns regarding the massive buildup of Russian troops near Ukraine, which U.S. and NATO officials say position Moscow for an imminent invasion. Poland is a key eastern European ally to the U.S. and a fellow member of NATO.
“Some of those forces [are] within 200 miles of the Polish border,” Austin said during a joint press conference in the Polish capital on Friday. “If Russia further invades Ukraine, Poland could see tens of thousands of displaced Ukrainians and others flowing across its border, trying to save themselves and their families from the scourge of war.”
Austin said the U.S. now has an additional 4,700 troops in Poland “who are prepared to respond to a range of contingencies.”
“They will work closely with our State Department and with Polish authorities should there be any need to help American citizens leave Ukraine,” he added.
The planned sale of more military aid to Poland “will support the foreign policy and national security of the United States by helping to improve the security of a NATO Ally that is a force for political stability and economic progress in Europe,” according to the State Department.
“The proposed sale will improve Poland’s capability to meet current and future threats by providing a credible force that is capable of deterring adversaries and participating in NATO operations,” the State Department said in a statement Friday. “Poland will have no difficulty absorbing this equipment into its armed forces.”
-ABC News’ Conor Finnegan
Feb 18, 6:21 am
Kremlin expresses concern about escalation in Donbas
Russia is concerned about the ongoing escalation of tensions in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine and believes the events unfolding there post a major potential threat, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday.
“What is happening in Donbas is very disquieting news, which provokes concern,” Peskov told reporters during a daily call. “It is potentially very dangerous.”
When asked how Putin has been sleeping amid the rising tensions, Peskov said: “Equally well.” He then added after a brief pause: “But with one eye open.”
-ABC News’ Anastasia Bagaeva
Feb 18, 5:56 am
Putin to oversee massive nuclear drills on Saturday
Russian President Vladimir Putin will personally oversee massive drills of his country’s strategic nuclear forces on Saturday, including test launches of ballistic and cruise missiles, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced Friday.
The defense ministry said in a statement that the drills were “planned” as part of large-scale military exercises currently taking place across Russia. Saturday’s drills are meant to check “the preparedness of military commands and crews of missile systems, warships and strategic bombers to accomplish their missions and at verifying the reliability of weapons of strategic nuclear and conventional forces,” according to the defense ministry.
“The exercise will involve forces and hardware belonging to the Aerospace Forces, the Southern Military District, the Strategic Missile Forces, the Northern Fleet, and the Black Sea Fleet,” the defense ministry said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin will be at the defense ministry’s Situational Center during the drills Saturday and that Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko might join him.
“Even test launches of this type are impossible without the head of state,” Peskov told reporters during a daily call Friday. “You all know about his famed ‘black briefcase,’ ‘the red button’ and so on.”
Peskov said the drills shouldn’t cause concern among other countries because they were notified of the upcoming exercises in advance.
When asked whether such drills could exacerbate tensions, Peskov replied: “Exercises and training launches of ballistic missiles are quite a regular training process. It is preceded by a whole series of notifications forwarded to different countries via various channels. All this is precisely regulated and no one has any questions or concerns.”
The drills will also coincide with the finale of the major joint military exercises in neighboring Belarus.
U.S. military officials have previously warned that Russia could conduct these drills now, saying the timing might be in order to signal to the West not to interfere in the event of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.
It’s also another opportunity for posturing as Putin has done many times before, placing himself at the end of demonstrations of military might. In recent years he has repeatedly hailed a range of new Russian nuclear super weapons, including a nuclear-powered cruise missile and hypersonic weapons.
-ABC News’ Anastasia Bagaeva and Patrick Reevell
Feb 18, 4:25 am
Lukashenko to meet Putin in Moscow
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Friday, as their countries continue to hold massive joint military exercises that Western countries fear could be used to cover up preparations for a possible invasion of neighboring Ukraine.
While Russia and Belarus have said that Russian troops will leave after the drills conclude Sunday, the United States remains concerned they may stay.
Earlier this week, Lukashenko indicated that he and Putin would decide at their meeting Friday how long Russian troops would stay in Belarus. Video released by Belarusian state media showed the authoritarian leader arriving at Moscow’s airport Friday morning.
Russia has moved an unprecedented number of troops into Belarus as part of its wider military build-up near Ukraine. There is an estimated 30,000 Russian troops in Belarus, which is only a few hours drive north of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.
Concerns have been heightened because Russia has moved most of the troops from its Eastern Military District in Russia’s Far East, some 6,000 miles away. Among them are many units required for an offensive, including long range artillery, fighter bombers, attack helicopters and airborne troops.
-ABC News’ Patrick Reevell
Feb 17, 9:28 pm
Biden to host meeting of allied leaders Friday: Canada PM’s office
President Joe Biden will host a closed-door meeting on Ukraine Friday with several U.S. allies, according to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office.
The leaders of France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Romania, the UK, the EU and NATO will participate in the meeting, Trudeau’s office said while sharing the prime minister’s Friday iterinary.
A White House official confirmed to ABC News that Biden will have a phone call Friday afternoon with transatlantic leaders “about Russia’s buildup of military troops on the border of Ukraine and our continued efforts to pursue deterrence and diplomacy.”
Also on Friday, Vice President Kamala Harris is scheduled to meet with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and hold a meeting with the leaders of the Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, as she travels to Germany for the annual Munich Security Conference, the White House said.
