United Kingdom’s Armed Forces Minister James Heappey has warned that a Russian invasion of Ukraine was “very imminent” and that the continent was closer to war than any point in history in the past 70 years.
Speaking with British media outlet BBC Radio 4, Heappey said that Russia had stationed 130,000 troops around the borders of Ukraine and thousands more in ships in the Black Sea and the Azov Sea. He said that he feared that combat may break out at any moment.
Meanwhile, America’s CBS News reported that the US had intelligence that President Putin told his commanders to “be ready to go” on February 16. This comes as Western leaders are launching a final push to negotiate a diplomatic solution to the stand-off with Russia.
The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said he would travel to Kyiv to talk with Ukrainian officials. Moreover, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he would hold further talks with world leaders and bring Russia “back from the brink” of war.
In another development, according to Deutsche Welle, a spokesman for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Kyiv’s aspirations to join NATO and the European Union remained one of its top priorities. The country’s foreign ministry said that its security would become guaranteed as soon as it joined the alliance.
