By Jim Heintz, Dasha Litvinova and Lori Hinnant -
The Associated Press
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, facing a sharp rise in violence in and around territory controlled by Russian-backed rebels and increasingly dire warnings that Moscow plans to invade, called on Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday to meet with him and look for a solution to the crisis.
"I don't know what the president of the Russian Federation wants, so I propose a meeting," Zelenskyy said at the Munich Security Conference, where he also met with US Vice President Kamala Harris.
Zelenskyy said Russia could choose the venue for the talks.
“
Ukraine will continue to follow only the diplomatic path for the sake of a peaceful settlement
,” he noted.
There was no immediate response from the Kremlin.
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A Ukrainian serviceman walks in front of a building that was hit by a large-caliber mortar shell in the frontline village of Krymske, Lugansk region, in eastern Ukraine, on Saturday, February 19, 2022.Vadim Ghirda/AP
Zelenskyy spoke hours after separatist leaders in eastern Ukraine ordered a full military mobilization on Saturday, while Western leaders issued increasingly dire warnings that a Russian invasion seemed imminent.
In new signs of fears that a war could break out within days, Germany and Austria told their citizens to leave Ukraine.
German airline Lufthansa has canceled flights to the capital, Kiev, and to Odessa, a Black Sea port that could be a key target in an invasion.
The NATO liaison office in Kiev said it was moving staff to Brussels and the western Ukrainian city of Lviv.
Meanwhile, senior Ukrainian military officers have come under fire while touring the front lines of the nearly eight-year separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine.
The officers fled to a bomb shelter and ran from the area, according to an Associated Press reporter who was on the tour.
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Violence in eastern Ukraine has spiked in recent days, with the Ukrainian government and the two rebel-held regions accusing each other of escalating the conflict.
Russia said on Saturday that at least two projectiles were fired from a government-controlled part of eastern Ukraine and fell across the border, but Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba dismissed that claim as "a statement". false”.
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Sporadic episodes of violence have raged for years along the line between Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed rebels, but the recent spike in bombings and attacks could spark a full-scale war.
The United States and many European countries have charged for months that Russia, which has moved some 150,000 troops near the Ukrainian border, is trying to create pretexts to invade.
“They are fanning out and now they are ready to strike,” US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Saturday during a visit to Lithuania.
Harris opened her meeting with Zelenskyy by saying that the world was at "a defining moment in history."
Earlier on Saturday, Denis Pushilin, head of the pro-Russian separatist government in Ukraine's Donetsk region, spoke of an "immediate threat of aggression" from Ukrainian forces.
But Ukrainian officials vehemently denied any plans to take over rebel-held areas by force.
“
I make a call to all the men of the republic who can wield arms
to defend their families, their children, wives, mothers”, said Pushilin.
“Together we will achieve the coveted victory that we all need,” he said.
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A similar statement followed from his counterpart in the Luhansk region.
On Friday, the rebels began evacuating civilians to Russia with a message that appeared to be part of their and Moscow's efforts to paint Ukraine as the aggressor.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said the evacuation orders could be a tactic to provide the spark for a broader attack.
"To put it very clearly,
Ukraine did not give any reason for the evacuation
that was ordered yesterday," he said.
“Those are the facts on the ground.
We must not allow so-called reasons for war to be constructed with verbiage,” he stated.
President Joe Biden said late Friday that according to the latest US intelligence data, he was now "convinced" that Russian President Vladimir Putin had decided to invade Ukraine and storm the capital.
“As of this moment, I am convinced that he made the decision,” Biden said.
"We have reason to believe that," he said.
Biden further reiterated that the assault could occur
in the “coming days”
.
Biden was briefed on Harris' meetings in Munich and has been getting regular updates on the Ukraine situation, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement on Saturday.
She indicated that Biden will speak on Ukraine during a meeting with his National Security Council on Sunday.
Meanwhile, Russia held large-scale nuclear exercises on Saturday.
The Kremlin said Putin, who has vowed to protect Russia's national interests against what he sees as Western threats, was watching the drills along with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko from the control room.
In particular, the planned exercise involves the Black Sea Fleet based in Crimea.
Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula after seizing it from Ukraine in 2014.
Underscoring Western concerns about an imminent invasion, a US defense official said that roughly 40% to 50% of ground forces deployed near the Ukrainian border have moved into attack positions. nearby.
The change has been underway for about a week, other officials said, and it doesn't necessarily mean Putin has decided to start an invasion.
The defense official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal US military assessments.
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The official also said the number of Russian ground units known as battalion tactical groups in the border area had risen to 125, up from 83 two weeks ago.
Each group has 750 to 1,000 soldiers.
The lines of communication between Moscow and the West remain open: US and Russian defense chiefs spoke on Friday.
French President Emmanuel Macron scheduled a phone call with Putin on Sunday.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov have agreed to meet next week.
Violation of ceasefire
The concern focused on eastern Ukraine, where Ukrainian forces have been fighting pro-Russian rebels since 2014 in a conflict that has killed some 14,000 people.
They have frequently violated a 2015 ceasefire agreement, with actions including shelling and shooting along the line of contact between the two sides.
A car bomb exploded in the center of the rebel-held city of Donetsk on Friday.
Adding to the tensions, two explosions rocked the rebel-held city of Lugansk early Saturday.
No injuries were reported in the incidents.
Ukraine's military said two of its soldiers were killed by gunfire from the rebel side on Saturday.
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On Saturday morning, separatists in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions, which form Ukraine's industrial heartland known as Donbas, said thousands of residents of rebel-held areas had been evacuated to Russia.
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Russia has issued some 700,000 passports to residents of the rebel-held territories.
Claims that Russian citizens are in danger could be used as justification for military action.
Pushilin, the head of the rebel Donetsk government, claimed in a video statement that Ukraine was going to order an imminent offensive in the area.
Possible invasion pretext
Metadata from two videos posted by separatists announcing the evacuation show the files were created two days ago, AP confirmed.
US authorities have alleged that the Kremlin's effort to devise an invasion pretext could include pre-recorded and staged videos.
Authorities in Russia's Rostov region, which borders eastern Ukraine, have declared a state of emergency due to the influx of evacuees.
Media reports on Saturday described a chaotic situation in some of the camps assigned to house people from eastern Ukraine.
Reports indicate that there were long bus lines and hundreds of people waiting in the cold for hours to be housed without access to food or sanitation facilities.
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Putin ordered the Russian government to offer 10,000 rubles (about $130) to each evacuee, an amount equal to about half of an average monthly salary in eastern Ukraine.
*Lori Hinnant reported from Kiev, Ukraine. Geir Moulson in Berlin, Aamer Madhani in Munich, Robert Burns and Darlene Superville in Washington, Liudas Dapkus in Vilnius, Lithuania, and Yuras Karmanau in Kiev contributed to this story.