President Joe Biden addressed the nation Friday from the White House to discuss the security crisis in Eastern Europe over the Russian threat of an invasion of Ukraine.
After weeks of escalating tensions in the region,
Biden assured for the first time that he is "convinced" that Russian President Vladimir Putin will invade his neighbor
and that there are reasons to believe that it will happen "in the next few days", based on US intelligence reports.
[Pro-Russian Separatists Drive Civilians Out of Eastern Ukraine and Putin Assumes 190,000 Soldiers]
President Joe Biden answers questions about the crisis in Ukraine from the White House on February 18, 2022. Alex Brandon / AP
Biden said he had briefed a bipartisan group of US lawmakers on the situation on the Ukraine-Russia border on Friday.
He also held a call with leaders of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the European Union, with whom he coordinates the response to the threat of Russian aggression.
"The last few days we have seen reports of a considerable increase in actions in violation of the ceasefire, in Russian provocative measures in the Donbas region. For example, yesterday they shelled a school hall, Russia falsely said that Ukraine had done this," Biden said during his White House press conference.
Russia agrees to meet with the United States next week to discuss the conflict with Ukraine
Feb. 18, 202201:11
Biden's intervention comes at a time when tensions have escalated and diplomatic dialogue has yet to produce a way out of Europe's worst security crisis since the Cold War ended.
[Russia sends 7,000 additional troops to its border with Ukraine after reports it has withdrawn some]
Sporadic shooting in eastern Ukraine is not unusual, but the apparent uptick comes amid Western warnings that Russia could mount a "false flag" operation or use increased violence in the area as
justification for a new military incursion.
“We have reason to believe that they are running a false flag operation to have an excuse to get in,” Biden said Thursday.
"Everything indicates that they are prepared to enter Ukraine and attack it."
[Biden believes it is "very possible" that Russia will invade Ukraine "in the next few days" as bombings raise tensions]
Putin himself has repeatedly warned Ukraine that an attempt to forcibly retake the autonomous territories in the east of the country would provoke a Russian military response.
There is a precedent for similar military intervention by Russia in Georgia in 2008, when it tried to forcibly retake South Ossetia, a pro-Russian region that had already declared itself an independent republic.