As fears grow that Russia is on the brink of invading Ukraine, the State Department is telling Americans to get out now. The State Departm...
As fears grow that Russia is on the brink of invading Ukraine, the State Department is telling Americans to get out now.
The State Department has ordered families of U.S. Embassy personnel in Ukraine to start fleeing beginning Monday, according to Fox News. Ukraine is seven hours ahead of the United States’ Eastern Time zone, meaning evacuations could begin when it’s still Sunday in Washington.
Other Americans in Ukraine will be encouraged to start leaving the country next week on commercial flights, “while those are still available,” one official said, according to Fox.
A commentary piece published Friday by NBC, authored by Brett Bruen, a former director of global engagement in the Obama White House, argued that President Joe Biden last week undercut any expectations of a defense of Ukraine with a comment at a news conference that if Russia conducted a “minor incursion” into Ukraine, the consequences would be mild.
“This clumsy, cringe-worthy attempt to distinguish between minor and major invasions sent a clear signal to the Kremlin that if troops stopped short of a full-scale military operation, they might avoid a serious response from the West. This is an ideal outcome for Russia. In fact, it is its preferred path forward,” Bruen wrote.
Biden, he wrote, “said only what many had already speculated. But saying the silent part out loud is serious stuff in diplomacy. It’s been clear for months now that Washington would prefer not to get entangled in a significant spat with Moscow. During their summit in Geneva this summer, Biden essentially told Putin, and later the news media, that as long as he doesn’t meddle as much, we can live with it.”
“This is, unfortunately, part of a broader, more detached approach to foreign crises that the White House has taken. The Kremlin took it as a major moment to move ahead with an ambitious attempt to assert more control over its neighbors,” he wrote.
Republican Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas said Russia has a “very aggressive timetable” for invading Ukraine.
“My prediction is, you’re going to see Russia invading Ukraine in the next month,” McCaul said Friday, according to Fox News.
He said that Russia has concluded Biden is a “weak president” and Russia now has carte blanche to “conduct what could be the largest invasion in Europe since World War II.”
“The key to addressing Russian aggression is deterrence,” McCaul said. “This administration has done far too little to deter Russia from further invading Ukraine.”
“Slow-rolling this type of assistance and support
as Kyiv sits at the epicenter of what could be the biggest conflict since World War II is absolutely unacceptable,” he said.An article in The Washington Post on Sunday reported that British officials believe that Russia’s end game in invading Ukraine is to install a puppet government that would be subservient to Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
“The information being released today shines a light on the extent of Russian activity designed to subvert Ukraine and is an insight into Kremlin thinking,” U.K. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said in a statement, according to the Post.
“As the U.K. and our partners have said repeatedly, any Russian military incursion into Ukraine would be a massive strategic mistake with severe costs,” Truss said.
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