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Russian military exercise (early February): According to US data, a Russian military operation against Ukraine could start any day
Photo: AP
In the Ukraine conflict, international crisis diplomacy is continuing at the highest level: Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) will be received by US President Joe Biden in Washington on Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.
Before his inaugural visit to the White House, Scholz promised to increase the Bundeswehr's participation in NATO operations in the Baltic States.
Meanwhile, further US troop reinforcements arrived in southeastern Poland.
According to US intelligence services, Moscow has now moved 70 percent of the troops needed for a large-scale invasion of Ukraine to the border.
However, it is unclear whether President Putin is actually planning an invasion.
He apparently wanted to keep all options open, it said on the US side.
An invasion limited to the Donbass region in eastern Ukraine is conceivable, but also a large-scale, comprehensive invasion.
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told Fox News on Sunday that a Russian military operation against Ukraine could begin any day now, or in a few weeks.
Or Russia could still rely on diplomatic means.
While Russia has deployed more than 100,000 troops near the border, the government in Moscow said it has no plans for an invasion but could take military action if its security demands are not met.
Among other things, the Kremlin wants NATO to refrain from accepting any other former Soviet republics like Ukraine.
A requirement that NATO can hardly meet.
Every nation can determine its own fate, said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
Meanwhile, more US reinforcements arrived in southeastern Poland on Sunday.
The first US reinforcement troops had already arrived in Wiesbaden on Friday, and more US soldiers landed in Poland on Saturday.
Washington announced last week that it would send 2,000 additional soldiers from a military base in North Carolina to Poland and Germany.
1000 US soldiers already stationed in Germany are to be transferred to Romania.
"We sent troops to Europe to defend NATO territory"
Despite the increase, the US emphasizes that it does not want to start a war with Russia.
Biden has "made it clear for months that the United States is not sending troops to start a war or fight a war with Russia in Ukraine," National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said on Fox News on Sunday.
"We sent troops to Europe to defend NATO territory," Sullivan explained.
The Ukrainian government was optimistic on Sunday: "An honest assessment of the situation suggests that the chance of finding a diplomatic solution to de-escalation is still much greater than the risk of further escalation," said President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's adviser , Mykhailo Podoliak.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called on the population to ignore "apocalyptic predictions" about an imminent Russian invasion.
"Today, Ukraine has a strong army, unprecedented international support and Ukrainians' faith in their country," he wrote on Twitter.
"The enemy should be afraid of us, not we of them." (Read more about the Ukrainian government's communications strategy here.)
wbr/AFP/Reuters