New Delhi: As the row over the Russian- Ukraine crisis intensifies, US Secretary 0f State Antony Blinken at the United Nations on Friday said Russia is seeking to unleash a major invasion in the coming days. Reiterating its position that Moscow's military actions are a threat to Ukraine, Blinken citing intelligence inputs asked Russia to "announce today with no qualification, equivocation or deflection that Russia will not invade Ukraine. State it clearly. State it plainly to the world."
While Russia has consistently tabled its position that they do not want war and nor do they want to invade Ukraine but the US and the West blames Moscow for its heavy deployment of troops around Ukraine.
President Joe Biden also told that Russia was planning a 'false flag operation' in order to invade Ukraine as a pretext to launch an attack. "They have not moved any of their troops out. They've moved more troops in," the US president said, adding, "Every indication we have is that they're prepared to go into Ukraine." Biden also reiterated that the path to diplomacy "is a way through this" and this could also solve the conundrum.
It is pertinent to note here that incidents of shellings were also reported in the Luhansk region as exchanges of fire took place between Ukraine's forces and pro-Russian separatists.
As the row over Ukraine intensifies, Russia earlier this week had announced that its forces were returning to their bases after drills in Belarus. While with this, Moscow gave a message that they do not want a war but their security demands must be acknowledged and should be met but the United States said that it needs credible evidence of Russian withdrawal.
