Russia now has needed ‘capability’ for moving against Ukraine, U.S. defence secretary says

Top U.S. defence officials said Friday they remain concerned about Russia’s intentions amid a troop buildup along Ukraine’s borders that is sufficient for Russian President Vladimir Putin to move forward with military action.

“While we don’t believe that President Putin has made a final decision to use these forces against Ukraine, he clearly now has that capability,” U.S. Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said, speaking to reporters in Washington on Friday.

U.S. Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the troop buildup “is larger in scale and scope in the massing of forces than anything we have seen in recent memory,” likely since the days of the Cold War.

Demands ignored, Russia says
Russia said Friday it will not start a war in Ukraine but warned that the United States and NATO have ignored its demands and left little room for compromise in the crisis.

Putin told French President Emmanuel Macron that the West has failed to consider Russia’s key conditions of halting further NATO expansion, stopping the deployment of alliance weapons near Russian borders and rolling back its forces from eastern Europe, the Kremlin said.

The U.S. and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization formally rejected those demands this week, although Washington outlined areas where discussions are possible, offering hope that there could be a way to avoid war.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been warned by U.S. President Joe Biden that there is a ‘distinct possibility’ that Russia could take military action against the former Soviet state in February. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Reuters)
Despite that, U.S. President Joe Biden warned Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday that there is a “distinct possibility” that Russia could take military action against the former Soviet state in February. Russia has repeatedly denied having any such plans.

Zelensky, however, sought to play down the war fears, saying Western alarm over an imminent invasion has prompted many investors in the country’s financial markets to cash out.

“We don’t need this panic,” he said at a news conference. “It cost Ukrainians dearly.”

Moscow to study U.S., NATO response
Putin told Macron that Moscow will study the U.S. and NATO response before deciding its next move, according to a Kremlin account of their call.

Earlier Friday, Putin held a weekly meeting of his security council, saying it would address foreign policy issues.

Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergei Lavrov, speaking to the media in Moscow on Wednesday, says the response the U.S. and NATO gave to Russia leaves little chance of reaching agreement. (Russian Foreign Ministry Press Service/The Associated Press)
Putin has made no public remarks about the Western response, but Foreign Affairs Minister Sergei Lavrov said it leaves little chance for reaching agreement.

“While they say they won’t change their positions, we won’t change ours,” Lavrov told Russian radio stations in a live interview. “I don’t see any room for compromise here.

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“There won’t be a war as far as it depends on the Russian Federation, we don’t want a war,” he added. “But we won’t let our interests be rudely trampled on and ignored.”

Lavrov said the U.S. suggested the two sides could talk about limits on the deployment of intermediate-range missiles, restrictions on military drills and rules to prevent accidents between warships and aircraft. He said Russia proposed discussing those issues years ago — but Washington and its allies never took them up on it until now.

Threat of sanctions
While welcoming Washington’s offers on confidence-building measures, Lavrov argued they are secondary to Russia’s main concerns on NATO. He noted that international agreements say the security of one nation must not come at the expense of others — and that he would send letters to ask his Western counterparts to explain their failure to respect that pledge.

“It will be hard for them to wiggle out from answering why they aren’t fulfilling the obligations sealed by their leaders not to strengthen their security at the expense of others,” he said, referring to a document signed at a 1999 summit of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.

WATCH | Russian naval drills on Black Sea:

Russia holds naval drills in the Black Sea
3 hours ago
Duration0:54
Russian warships conducted military exercises in the Black Sea south of Ukraine on Friday, amid rising tensions over a potential conflict with Ukraine. 0:54
Washington has warned Moscow of devastating sanctions if it invades Ukraine, including penalties targeting top Russian officials and key economic sectors. Asked about possible sanctions, Lavrov said Moscow had warned Washington that their introduction would amount to a complete severing of ties.

While Moscow and the West are mulling their next steps, NATO said it was bolstering its deterrence in the Baltic Sea region, and the U.S. ordered 8,500 troops on higher alert for potential deployment to Europe.

A Ukrainian serviceman uses a periscope to observe the front line in the Luhansk area of Eastern Ukraine on Thursday. (Vadim Ghirda/The Associated Press)
Russia has launched military drills involving motorized infantry and artillery units in southwestern Russia, warplanes in Kaliningrad on the Baltic Sea and dozens of warships in the Black Sea and the Arctic.

Russian troops have also headed to Belarus for sweeping joint drills, raising Western fears that Moscow could stage an attack on Ukraine from the north. The Ukrainian capital is just 75 kilometres from the border with Belarus.

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Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said there will be no war unless Belarus or Russia come under attack, and he accused the West of trying to “drown our Slavic brotherhood in blood.”

“The leaders of some countries have gone mad [and] they think they can win that war,” he said. “But there will be no victory; we will all lose.”

Olga, one of the 16 residents still living in a front-line village, holds a rabbit while speaking to journalists on Friday, at her home in the Luhansk region of Eastern Ukraine. (Vadim Ghirda/The Associated Press)