Fears of an assault rose when the Russian-backed leader of a separatist-controlled area of eastern Ukraine said officials there were launching a mass evacuation of civilians into Russia, citing a threat of military action by Ukraine. But confusion surrounded the announcement by Denis Pushilin, head of the Donetsk People’s Republic in Ukraine’s Donbas region. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he had “no information about what is happening,” while Russia’s Interfax news agency reported that officials were planning for the evacuation of “several hundreds of thousands of people.”
Here’s what to know
- The Biden administration is “deeply concerned” that Putin has turned away from a diplomatic resolution to the crisis in Ukraine, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at the Munich Security Conference.
- The Biden administration said that the United States has reason to believe that Russian cyber actors targeted the Ukrainian government and banks during the past week with an attack of “limited impact.”
- Blinken agreed to meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov next week under the condition that Moscow refrains from attacking Ukraine.
- Vice President Harris, in Munich for a major security conference, met with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and representatives of NATO’s three Baltic states and will confer with Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, on Saturday.
Zelensky weighing whether to travel to Munich Security Conference
With tensions mounting, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is weighing whether to travel to the Munich Security Conference on Saturday. Among other things, he is scheduled to meet with Vice President Harris while there.
Zelensky spokesman Sergei Nyfyforov said officials are monitoring the situation, “which is getting more and more dramatic.”
“The president is scheduled to depart tomorrow morning,” Nyfyforov told NBC. “If there is a dramatic escalation or some worrying messages then he might change his mind. As of now, we are still waiting to see what is going to happen.”
Meanwhile, Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s national security and defense council, said Zelensky is still planning to travel to Munich on Saturday.
“I can confirm for today once more that we do not see a full-scale invasion into the territory of our country,” Danilov said.
Pressed on whether the United States was concerned, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Friday that it is for Zelensky to decide on whether to leave Ukraine for the conference.
Biden administration believes Russian government is responsible for cyber attacks on Ukrainian banks
Anne Neuberger, the Biden administration’s deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging technology, said Friday that the United States has reason to believe that Russian cyber actors targeted the Ukrainian government and banks during the past week with an attack of “limited impact.”
“We believe that the Russian government is responsible for wide-scale cyber attacks on Ukrainian banks,” Neuberger said. “We’ve shared the underlying intelligence with Ukraine and with our European partners.”
The attack, she said, was limited “because Ukrainian cyber defenders rapidly brought back both the state-owned banks and the Ministry of Defense Networks.” The cyber operations included overloads of online services at the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense and state-owned banks.
“Russia has used cyber as a major part of its military activity beyond its borders, including to undermine, coerce and destabilize Ukraine,” Neuberger said. “For that reason, and at the president’s direction, we’ve been working to prepare for potential cyber attacks since November.”
Neuberger said that the administration is also shoring up cyber defenses nationally but added that there are currently no credible cyber threats to the United States.
Neuberger said that, as part addressing Russian cyber attacks, the Department of Energy found “sheer technical indicators of techniques used by Russian cyber actors to conduct cyber attacks against Ukrainian electricity systems during prior crises in Ukraine.”
“Russia likes to move in the shadows and [counts] on a long process of attribution so it can continue its malicious behavior against Ukraine in cyberspace,” Neuberger said.
Putin sends mixed signals, demands that the West accept his terms but talks of diplomacy
MOSCOW — Putin said Friday that Moscow would be willing to pursue diplomacy to settle the crisis. But he demanded that the United States and NATO accept Russia’s demands as a “package” rather than offering limited compromises around issues such as intermediate range missile deployment.
Putin insisted that Russia would not accept a compromise, calling on the West to “properly accept” his terms. He also said, “we are ready to follow the negotiation track, provided that all issues are considered as a complex, without separation from the main Russian proposals, the implementation of which is an absolute priority for us.”
Amid Western leaders’ calls for Putin to de-escalate Russia’s aggressive posture on Ukraine’s borders and pull back troops, the Russian leader showed his irritation at the rejection of key Moscow demands by Washington and NATO, raising uncertainty about his willingness to pursue talks scheduled next week between Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
Putin’s warning of an “escalation” of hostilities in eastern Ukraine deepened fears that he might order an attack on Ukraine in coming days. He spoke at a news conference alongside his close ally Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who said the two leaders discussed how to jointly deter “Western aggression.”
Putin’s warning of an “escalation” of hostilities in two Russian-backed separatist regions in eastern Ukraine came days after he accused Ukrainian authorities of “genocide” in the regions, comments that raised fears that the Kremlin was preparing a pretext to attack.
In comments to the U.N. Security Council, Blinken warned Thursday that Russia may manufacture a pretext to invade, such as claims of genocide.
Biden will give an update Friday afternoon on diplomacy efforts as Russia moves troops to Ukrainian border
Biden will give an update Friday at 4 p.m. Eastern time on the U.S. efforts to pursue deterrence and diplomacy, as well as on Russia’s buildup of military troops on the Ukrainian border, the White House said.
The president will speak before reporters in the Roosevelt Room of the White House. He will deliver the update after speaking with transatlantic allies on their continued diplomatic efforts at 2:30 p.m. Eastern time.
U.S. says Russia now has as many as 190,000 personnel in and near Ukraine
The United States asserted Friday that Russia has “probably” massed as many as 190,000 personnel in and near Ukraine, a significant jump from an estimate of 100,000 on Jan. 30.
The assessment, part of a statement by the U.S. mission to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, includes Moscow-backed separatist forces in eastern Ukraine and personnel in the annexed Crimean Peninsula.
“This is the most significant military mobilization in Europe since the Second World War,” said the statement, as delivered by U.S. Ambassador Michael Carpenter.
According to the statement, the United States believes Russia has massed between 169,000 and 190,000 military personnel in and near Ukraine.
“This estimate includes military troops along the border, in Belarus, and in occupied Crimea; Russian National Guard and other internal security units deployed to these areas; and Russian-led forces in eastern Ukraine,” the statement said. “While Russia has sought to downplay or deceive the world about their ground and air preparations, the Russian military has publicized its large-scale naval exercises in the Black Sea, Baltic Sea and the Arctic.”
United States ‘deeply concerned’ Russia has turned away from diplomatic path, Blinken says
MUNICH — The Biden administration is “deeply concerned” that Russian President Vladimir Putin has turned away from a diplomatic resolution to the crisis in Ukraine, Secretary of State Antony Blinken told an audience at the Munich Security Conference on Friday.
The top U.S. diplomat made the remarks amid fears that an evacuation announcement by a Russian-backed leader of a separatist-controlled area of eastern Ukraine could be followed by military action.
“Even as we are doing everything we possibly can to make clear there’s a diplomatic path … we are deeply concerned that is not the path Russia is embarked on,” said Blinken, speaking on a panel that included German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock.
Blinken said Russia continues to create “false provocations” and that the United States is committed to shining a “light on what we see.”
Blinken said the “single greatest source of strength we have” is solidarity with European partners, including Germany. The German government has decided against providing Ukraine with defensive weapons, even as other countries have supplied mortars, antitank missiles and other gear.
Responding to criticism that Germany has not done more to help Ukraine, Baerbock said, “We have different roles, and we have a different history.” She noted that Berlin’s opposition to sending weapons abroad stemmed from its post-World War II vow to “never again” start a “war” or a “genocide.”
On imposing sanctions on Moscow for its actions, she vowed that Russia’s Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline to Germany would not be spared — something that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has been more reluctant to state specifically.
“All options are on the table, including Nord Stream 2,” she said.
Blinken defended Germany’s actions related to the Ukraine crisis, saying it plays a “complementary” role.
In Kyiv, an anniversary tribute to pro-Western ‘Maidan revolution’
KYIV, Ukraine — Eight years ago, on Feb. 18, 2014, Ukrainian police stormed anti-government protesters in Kyiv’s Maidan square. It was a turning point in days of violence that would leave dozens dead and oust a pro-Russian president, Viktor Yanukovych.
On Friday, under the cloud of a potential Russian invasion, Ukrainians gathered to honor the memories of those lost in the “Maidan revolution.” Citizens attached paper angels to monuments. Veterans brought flags to a memorial that bears the names of the protesters who died during the revolution. Moments of silence were observed at the site that changed the country.
Harris renews warning of ‘severe consequences’ if Russia invades Ukraine
Vice President Harris renewed a warning of “severe consequences” if Russia invades Ukraine as she met Friday with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in Munich.
“We remain, of course, supportive of diplomacy as it relates to the dialogue and discussions we’ve had with Russia, but we are also committed to taking corrective actions to ensure there will be severe consequences in terms of the sanctions we have discussed, and we know the alliance is strong in that regard,” Harris said during a portion of the meeting reporters were permitted to observe.
Harris is leading the U.S. delegation to the Munich Security Conference, a high-profile annual gathering that has taken on heightened importance, given Russia’s military buildup on Ukraine borders.
In her meeting with Stoltenberg, she reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to NATO allies.
“Right now, we are obviously dealing with being concerned about what’s happening in Ukraine,” she said. “As a member of NATO, we feel very strongly about and will always be committed to the principle of territorial integrity and sovereignty.”
In a later meeting with leaders of NATO’s Baltic states, Harris said the United States has “prioritized the importance of diplomacy.”
“The onus is on Russia at this point to demonstrate that it is serious in that regard,” she said.
Latvian President Egils Levits said his goal is to “avoid the hot phase” of the conflict and that he hopes a unified West will ensure “the cost-benefit analysis” for Russia leads it to a diplomatic solution.
Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said Russian President Vladimir Putin does not want democracy to prevail in Ukraine.
“We have all lost our independence to Russia once, and we don’t want it to happen again,” she said. “We understand what is at stake here.”
Russian-backed leader announces evacuation of civilians from breakaway Ukrainian region, raising fears of imminent military action
KYIV, Ukraine — The Russian-backed leader of a separatist-controlled area of eastern Ukraine said Friday that officials there were launching a mass evacuation of civilians into neighboring Russia, citing the threat of military action in the region by Ukrainian troops.
An exodus from Ukraine into Russia, which could not immediately be confirmed, would be seen as a signal that major military activities are imminent.
Denis Pushilin, the head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic in Ukraine’s Donbas region, said in a video address that Russia had agreed to accept residents of the region and that checkpoints and border crossings were ready to speed their movement.
“First of all, women, children and the elderly are subject to evacuation,” Pushilin said. “By agreement with the leadership of the Russian Federation, places to take in and accommodate our citizens are ready in the Rostov region” of western Russia.
But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, in a response to a question from a reporter about the reports of an evacuation from Donbas, said, “I have no information about what is happening there now.”
Pushilin beseeched residents of the region to leave the area, at least temporarily, to “save their life.” Pushilin claimed without presenting evidence that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “will soon give an order to … invade the territory of the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics.”
The evacuation announcement is particularly worrying, coming after Russian President Vladimir Putin twice accused Ukraine of “genocide” in the separatist east during a news conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Tuesday. There are fears that the evacuation itself could be used by Moscow as a pretext to launch an attack, on the basis of claims that Ukraine’s military mounted major attacks. Peskov warned this week of the “high risk” of a Ukrainian attack on the separatist regions.
Many civilians in the region fled over the border to Russia during fighting in 2014 and 2015, but there was no organized mass evacuation.
Russia’s Interfax news agency, citing an unnamed source, said officials were planning for the evacuation of “several hundreds of thousands of people.”
“Accommodation centers have already been set up for them,” Interfax quoted the source as saying.
Putin noted the spiking tensions, which he also blamed on Ukraine and its Western allies, during a news conference Friday in Moscow. “All Kyiv needs to do is sit down at the negotiating table with representatives of Donbas and agree on political, military, economic and humanitarian measures to end the conflict,” Putin said.
“Unfortunately now we are seeing the opposite — the escalation of the conflict in Donbas.”
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba rejected accusations that Ukraine was poised to launch a major attack on Donbas. “We categorically refute Russian disinformation reports on Ukraine’s alleged offensive operations or acts of sabotage in chemical production facilities,” Kuleba wrote on Twitter. “Ukraine does not conduct or plan any such actions in the Donbas. We are fully committed to diplomatic conflict resolution only.”
David L. Stern in Lviv, Ukraine, contributed to this report.
Ukraine’s Zelensky urges global powers to provide security guarantees
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday urged global powers to provide his country with security guarantees, stressing: “It’s not altruism, it’s about you being next.”
In an interview with RBC-Ukraine, a Ukrainian news agency, Zelensky said that NATO is the only security alliance available for his country to join, but that there is “a long way to go — years and months,” and he noted Russia’s willingness to use military force to stop Kyiv from doing so.
Therefore, he said, Ukraine “must get a system of guarantees” from other countries, which should be “equal to the system offered to NATO countries.” According to Article 5 of NATO’s charter, an armed attack on one of its members is considered an attack on all of its members, which can respond with armed force if required. It was invoked for the first time after the 9/11 attacks against the United States.
Offering security guarantees to Ukraine would help protect other countries in the region, as well, Zelensky said. “Ukraine not only defends its territory, but also deters further encroachments in Eastern Europe,” he said.
He added that Ukraine was not asking other countries to deploy troops to Ukraine: “We do not want to give an extra reason for the Russian Federation to say that we have bases here and that they need to ‘protect’ themselves.”
After the Soviet Union’s dissolution, Ukraine abruptly came into possession of the world’s third-largest nuclear arsenal. In 1994, the United States and Russia persuaded Kyiv to give up the weapons in return for security assurances, which were nonbinding agreements that didn’t require the United States to send troops to protect Ukraine.
Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea has been viewed by the West as a breach of those assurances.
Russia, Belarus leaders meet amid military exercise
MINSK, Belarus — Russian President Vladimir Putin received his Belarusian counterpart, Alexander Lukashenko, in the Kremlin on Friday as the two countries conducted massive military drills near the Ukrainian border.
Putin greeted Lukashenko with a hug, and the two were seated at a small table, notably unlike the seating arrangement with a string of Western leaders, who were separated from the Russian president by a table 20 feet long.
Lukashenko is hosting the Russian armed forces for a lengthy exercise involving air and ground troops along with ballistic missile systems capable of reaching Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv.
Both Minsk and Moscow deny that they are preparing to attack their neighbor but have significantly ratcheted up the rhetoric against the Kyiv government and the West.
“The military-political spectrum was brought to the center of the stage thanks to the effort of our Western partners, as you call them, and we have to react to this, including by holding military exercises and through diplomacy,” Lukashenko said Friday.
Putin, in turn, invited Lukashenko to attend another major military exercise on Saturday that will involve launching strategic ballistic and cruise missiles.
UNICEF urges protection for children in eastern Ukraine after kindergarten shelling
The United Nations children’s agency called for safe access to education for children in eastern Ukraine after the country’s military said an artillery shell hit a kindergarten building.
Ukrainian officials said the kindergarten in the east was among civilian structures hit by artillery from Russian-backed separatist forces Thursday, heightening tensions in a region already on edge in the wake of Moscow’s troop buildup along the Ukrainian border.
Three adult employees suffered concussions, the Ukrainian military said in a statement posted to social media, but no children were reported hurt. The kindergarten is located in an area where both Ukrainian troops and separatists withdrew from front-line positions in 2019 as part of an agreement to create a disengagement zone.
Pro-Russian separatists accused Ukrainian government forces of opening fire, which Ukraine’s armed forces denied.
Cease-fire violations in the country’s disputed eastern territories intensified Thursday and continued into Friday, according to European monitors.
“Attacks on kindergartens and schools have been a sad reality for children in eastern Ukraine over the last eight years,” UNICEF said in a statement. More than 750 schools have been damaged during the conflict, “disrupting access to education for thousands of children on both sides of the contact line,” it said.
“The conflict has taken a severe toll on the psychosocial well-being of an entire generation of children growing up in Eastern Ukraine,” the agency added. “UNICEF calls on all parties to … protect children and their caregivers from attacks, regardless of the circumstances they might find themselves in.”
Kyiv prepared to evacuate residents, go on emergency footing in case of attack
KYIV, Ukraine — The security chief for Ukraine’s capital said Friday that officials have plans ready to evacuate most of Kyiv’s 2.9 million residents in case of a major attack by Russian forces.
The city is prepared to all but empty the metropolitan area, or to move residents from vulnerable neighborhoods to safer parts of the city, according to Roman Tkachuk, director of Kyiv’s Municipal Security Department.
“The civilian safety system of the city of Kyiv is fully ready for mass evacuation of its citizens,” Tkachuk told The Washington Post.
City officials could make an evacuation order mandatory, Tkachuk said, exempting only essential emergency workers, including military, police and medical personnel and staff needed to operate critical infrastructure.
In the case of a general threat of attack, officials would use buses and trains to transport Kyiv residents to safe zones, probably in the western parts of the country. Tkachuk said planning has been informed by the city’s experience in 2014, when officials converted Kyiv’s main rail station into a transit hub to handle thousands of refugees fleeing the fighting in the eastern Donbas region.
If only certain neighborhoods are targeted, the city will help residents find shelter in other parts of the metropolitan region. Kyiv’s 42-mile Metro system would cut operations to three morning hours and three evening hours in an emergency. Otherwise, the network’s 52 stations, including some of the deepest in the world, would operate as air-raid bunkers.
Some stations and rail lines would be closed entirely, according to local media reports, allowing them to serve as full-time shelters. Workers have already tested the stations for air quality and ventilation and have had water supplies and toilets prepared for heavy use, the reports said.
Kyiv residents have struggled to prepare for the possibility of an attack on the city as officials have downplayed the possibility of strikes on the capital.
They have directed civilians to a network of Cold War-era bunkers throughout the city, although many of those remained locked, cluttered or repurposed as cafes, strip clubs and storage rooms.
Some residents have already left the capital in recent days, relocating to cities to the west or to vacation homes in the Carpathian Mountains.
Several Western governments have evacuated their staffs from Kyiv. U.S. Embassy officials have left the country or set up emergency operations in Lviv, near the Polish border.
Alex Sipigin in Kyiv contributed to this report.
Visiting Poland, U.S. defense secretary announces sale of 250 tanks
The United States plans to sell 250 Abrams tanks to Poland, potentially boosting an important ally in Eastern Europe amid the escalating crisis in Ukraine.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin announced the planned sale at a meeting in Warsaw with his Polish counterpart where they discussed the buildup of Russian forces around Ukraine.
In a joint news conference, he also addressed Polish concerns about the deployment of Russian forces in Belarus, noting that some of them are “within 200 miles of the Polish border.”
Austin said that additional Russian attacks on Ukraine could send people fleeing to Poland. The country “could see tens of thousands of displaced Ukrainians and others pouring across the border, trying to save themselves and their families from the scourge of war,” he said.
Though he offered no timeline on the sale, Austin said the Abrams M1A1 tanks will “strengthen our interoperability with the Polish armed forces, boosting the credibility of our combined deterrence efforts and those of our other NATO allies.”
Nearly 5,000 U.S. troops are now in Poland. Austin said Friday that they are prepared to respond to “a range of contingencies” and that the military would work with the State Department and Polish authorities should there be a need to help Americans leave Ukraine.
He called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to choose the path of diplomacy but vowed that NATO allies would stand together if he did not. “It’s ironic that what Mr. Putin did not want to see happen was a stronger NATO on his flank,” he said. “And that’s exactly what he will see going forward.”
Fears of an assault rose when the Russian-backed leader of a separatist-controlled area of eastern Ukraine said officials there were launching a mass evacuation of civilians into Russia, citing a threat of military action by Ukraine. But confusion surrounded the announcement by Denis Pushilin, head of the Donetsk People’s Republic in Ukraine’s Donbas region. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he had “no information about what is happening,” while Russia’s Interfax news agency reported that officials were planning for the evacuation of “several hundreds of thousands of people.”Here’s what to knowThe Biden administration is “deeply concerned” that Putin has turned away from a diplomatic resolution to the crisis in Ukraine, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at the Munich Security Conference.The Biden administration said that the United States has reason to believe that Russian cyber actors targeted the Ukrainian government and banks during the past week with an attack of “limited impact.”Blinken agreed to meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov next week under the condition that Moscow refrains from attacking Ukraine.Vice President Harris, in Munich for a major security conference, met with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and representatives of NATO’s three Baltic states and will confer with Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, on Saturday.Zelensky weighing whether to travel to Munich Security ConferenceReturn to menuWith tensions mounting, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is weighing whether to travel to the Munich Security Conference on Saturday. Among other things, he is scheduled to meet with Vice President Harris while there.Zelensky spokesman Sergei Nyfyforov said officials are monitoring the situation, “which is getting more and more dramatic.”“The president is scheduled to depart tomorrow morning,” Nyfyforov told NBC. “If there is a dramatic escalation or some worrying messages then he might change his mind. As of now, we are still waiting to see what is going to happen.”Meanwhile, Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s national security and defense council, said Zelensky is still planning to travel to Munich on Saturday.“I can confirm for today once more that we do not see a full-scale invasion into the territory of our country,” Danilov said.Pressed on whether the United States was concerned, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Friday that it is for Zelensky to decide on whether to leave Ukraine for the conference.Updates continue below advertisementBiden administration believes Russian government is responsible for cyber attacks on Ukrainian banksReturn to menuAnne Neuberger, the Biden administration’s deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging technology, said Friday that the United States has reason to believe that Russian cyber actors targeted the Ukrainian government and banks during the past week with an attack of “limited impact.”“We believe that the Russian government is responsible for wide-scale cyber attacks on Ukrainian banks,” Neuberger said. “We’ve shared the underlying intelligence with Ukraine and with our European partners.”The attack, she said, was limited “because Ukrainian cyber defenders rapidly brought back both the state-owned banks and the Ministry of Defense Networks.” The cyber operations included overloads of online services at the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense and state-owned banks.“Russia has used cyber as a major part of its military activity beyond its borders, including to undermine, coerce and destabilize Ukraine,” Neuberger said. “For that reason, and at the president’s direction, we’ve been working to prepare for potential cyber attacks since November.”Neuberger said that the administration is also shoring up cyber defenses nationally but added that there are currently no credible cyber threats to the United States.Neuberger said that, as part addressing Russian cyber attacks, the Department of Energy found “sheer technical indicators of techniques used by Russian cyber actors to conduct cyber attacks against Ukrainian electricity systems during prior crises in Ukraine.”“Russia likes to move in the shadows and [counts] on a long process of attribution so it can continue its malicious behavior against Ukraine in cyberspace,” Neuberger said.Updates continue below advertisementPutin sends mixed signals, demands that the West accept his terms but talks of diplomacyReturn to menuMOSCOW — Putin said Friday that Moscow would be willing to pursue diplomacy to settle the crisis. But he demanded that the United States and NATO accept Russia’s demands as a “package” rather than offering limited compromises around issues such as intermediate range missile deployment.Putin insisted that Russia would not accept a compromise, calling on the West to “properly accept” his terms. He also said, “we are ready to follow the negotiation track, provided that all issues are considered as a complex, without separation from the main Russian proposals, the implementation of which is an absolute priority for us.”Amid Western leaders’ calls for Putin to de-escalate Russia’s aggressive posture on Ukraine’s borders and pull back troops, the Russian leader showed his irritation at the rejection of key Moscow demands by Washington and NATO, raising uncertainty about his willingness to pursue talks scheduled next week between Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.Putin’s warning of an “escalation” of hostilities in eastern Ukraine deepened fears that he might order an attack on Ukraine in coming days. He spoke at a news conference alongside his close ally Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who said the two leaders discussed how to jointly deter “Western aggression.”Putin’s warning of an “escalation” of hostilities in two Russian-backed separatist regions in eastern Ukraine came days after he accused Ukrainian authorities of “genocide” in the regions, comments that raised fears that the Kremlin was preparing a pretext to attack.In comments to the U.N. Security Council, Blinken warned Thursday that Russia may manufacture a pretext to invade, such as claims of genocide.Updates continue below advertisementBiden will give an update Friday afternoon on diplomacy efforts as Russia moves troops to Ukrainian borderReturn to menuBiden will give an update Friday at 4 p.m. Eastern time on the U.S. efforts to pursue deterrence and diplomacy, as well as on Russia’s buildup of military troops on the Ukrainian border, the White House said.The president will speak before reporters in the Roosevelt Room of the White House. He will deliver the update after speaking with transatlantic allies on their continued diplomatic efforts at 2:30 p.m. Eastern time.Updates continue below advertisementU.S. says Russia now has as many as 190,000 personnel in and near UkraineReturn to menuThe United States asserted Friday that Russia has “probably” massed as many as 190,000 personnel in and near Ukraine, a significant jump from an estimate of 100,000 on Jan. 30.The assessment, part of a statement by the U.S. mission to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, includes Moscow-backed separatist forces in eastern Ukraine and personnel in the annexed Crimean Peninsula.“This is the most significant military mobilization in Europe since the Second World War,” said the statement, as delivered by U.S. Ambassador Michael Carpenter.According to the statement, the United States believes Russia has massed between 169,000 and 190,000 military personnel in and near Ukraine.“This estimate includes military troops along the border, in Belarus, and in occupied Crimea; Russian National Guard and other internal security units deployed to these areas; and Russian-led forces in eastern Ukraine,” the statement said. “While Russia has sought to downplay or deceive the world about their ground and air preparations, the Russian military has publicized its large-scale naval exercises in the Black Sea, Baltic Sea and the Arctic.”Updates continue below advertisementUnited States ‘deeply concerned’ Russia has turned away from diplomatic path, Blinken saysReturn to menuMUNICH — The Biden administration is “deeply concerned” that Russian President Vladimir Putin has turned away from a diplomatic resolution to the crisis in Ukraine, Secretary of State Antony Blinken told an audience at the Munich Security Conference on Friday.The top U.S. diplomat made the remarks amid fears that an evacuation announcement by a Russian-backed leader of a separatist-controlled area of eastern Ukraine could be followed by military action.“Even as we are doing everything we possibly can to make clear there’s a diplomatic path … we are deeply concerned that is not the path Russia is embarked on,” said Blinken, speaking on a panel that included German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock.Blinken said Russia continues to create “false provocations” and that the United States is committed to shining a “light on what we see.”Blinken said the “single greatest source of strength we have” is solidarity with European partners, including Germany. The German government has decided against providing Ukraine with defensive weapons, even as other countries have supplied mortars, antitank missiles and other gear.Responding to criticism that Germany has not done more to help Ukraine, Baerbock said, “We have different roles, and we have a different history.” She noted that Berlin’s opposition to sending weapons abroad stemmed from its post-World War II vow to “never again” start a “war” or a “genocide.”On imposing sanctions on Moscow for its actions, she vowed that Russia’s Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline to Germany would not be spared — something that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has been more reluctant to state specifically.“All options are on the table, including Nord Stream 2,” she said.Blinken defended Germany’s actions related to the Ukraine crisis, saying it plays a “complementary” role.Updates continue below advertisementIn Kyiv, an anniversary tribute to pro-Western ‘Maidan revolution’Return to menuKYIV, Ukraine — Eight years ago, on Feb. 18, 2014, Ukrainian police stormed anti-government protesters in Kyiv’s Maidan square. It was a turning point in days of violence that would leave dozens dead and oust a pro-Russian president, Viktor Yanukovych.On Friday, under the cloud of a potential Russian invasion, Ukrainians gathered to honor the memories of those lost in the “Maidan revolution.” Citizens attached paper angels to monuments. Veterans brought flags to a memorial that bears the names of the protesters who died during the revolution. Moments of silence were observed at the site that changed the country.Updates continue below advertisementHarris renews warning of ‘severe consequences’ if Russia invades UkraineReturn to menuVice President Harris renewed a warning of “severe consequences” if Russia invades Ukraine as she met Friday with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in Munich.“We remain, of course, supportive of diplomacy as it relates to the dialogue and discussions we’ve had with Russia, but we are also committed to taking corrective actions to ensure there will be severe consequences in terms of the sanctions we have discussed, and we know the alliance is strong in that regard,” Harris said during a portion of the meeting reporters were permitted to observe.Harris is leading the U.S. delegation to the Munich Security Conference, a high-profile annual gathering that has taken on heightened importance, given Russia’s military buildup on Ukraine borders.In her meeting with Stoltenberg, she reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to NATO allies.“Right now, we are obviously dealing with being concerned about what’s happening in Ukraine,” she said. “As a member of NATO, we feel very strongly about and will always be committed to the principle of territorial integrity and sovereignty.”In a later meeting with leaders of NATO’s Baltic states, Harris said the United States has “prioritized the importance of diplomacy.”“The onus is on Russia at this point to demonstrate that it is serious in that regard,” she said.Latvian President Egils Levits said his goal is to “avoid the hot phase” of the conflict and that he hopes a unified West will ensure “the cost-benefit analysis” for Russia leads it to a diplomatic solution.Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said Russian President Vladimir Putin does not want democracy to prevail in Ukraine.“We have all lost our independence to Russia once, and we don’t want it to happen again,” she said. “We understand what is at stake here.”Updates continue below advertisementRussian-backed leader announces evacuation of civilians from breakaway Ukrainian region, raising fears of imminent military actionReturn to menuKYIV, Ukraine — The Russian-backed leader of a separatist-controlled area of eastern Ukraine said Friday that officials there were launching a mass evacuation of civilians into neighboring Russia, citing the threat of military action in the region by Ukrainian troops.An exodus from Ukraine into Russia, which could not immediately be confirmed, would be seen as a signal that major military activities are imminent.Denis Pushilin, the head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic in Ukraine’s Donbas region, said in a video address that Russia had agreed to accept residents of the region and that checkpoints and border crossings were ready to speed their movement.“First of all, women, children and the elderly are subject to evacuation,” Pushilin said. “By agreement with the leadership of the Russian Federation, places to take in and accommodate our citizens are ready in the Rostov region” of western Russia.But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, in a response to a question from a reporter about the reports of an evacuation from Donbas, said, “I have no information about what is happening there now.”Pushilin beseeched residents of the region to leave the area, at least temporarily, to “save their life.” Pushilin claimed without presenting evidence that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “will soon give an order to … invade the territory of the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics.”The evacuation announcement is particularly worrying, coming after Russian President Vladimir Putin twice accused Ukraine of “genocide” in the separatist east during a news conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Tuesday. There are fears that the evacuation itself could be used by Moscow as a pretext to launch an attack, on the basis of claims that Ukraine’s military mounted major attacks. Peskov warned this week of the “high risk” of a Ukrainian attack on the separatist regions.Many civilians in the region fled over the border to Russia during fighting in 2014 and 2015, but there was no organized mass evacuation.Russia’s Interfax news agency, citing an unnamed source, said officials were planning for the evacuation of “several hundreds of thousands of people.”“Accommodation centers have already been set up for them,” Interfax quoted the source as saying.Putin noted the spiking tensions, which he also blamed on Ukraine and its Western allies, during a news conference Friday in Moscow. “All Kyiv needs to do is sit down at the negotiating table with representatives of Donbas and agree on political, military, economic and humanitarian measures to end the conflict,” Putin said.“Unfortunately now we are seeing the opposite — the escalation of the conflict in Donbas.”Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba rejected accusations that Ukraine was poised to launch a major attack on Donbas. “We categorically refute Russian disinformation reports on Ukraine’s alleged offensive operations or acts of sabotage in chemical production facilities,” Kuleba wrote on Twitter. “Ukraine does not conduct or plan any such actions in the Donbas. We are fully committed to diplomatic conflict resolution only.”David L. Stern in Lviv, Ukraine, contributed to this report.Ukraine’s Zelensky urges global powers to provide security guaranteesReturn to menuUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday urged global powers to provide his country with security guarantees, stressing: “It’s not altruism, it’s about you being next.”In an interview with RBC-Ukraine, a Ukrainian news agency, Zelensky said that NATO is the only security alliance available for his country to join, but that there is “a long way to go — years and months,” and he noted Russia’s willingness to use military force to stop Kyiv from doing so.Therefore, he said, Ukraine “must get a system of guarantees” from other countries, which should be “equal to the system offered to NATO countries.” According to Article 5 of NATO’s charter, an armed attack on one of its members is considered an attack on all of its members, which can respond with armed force if required. It was invoked for the first time after the 9/11 attacks against the United States.Offering security guarantees to Ukraine would help protect other countries in the region, as well, Zelensky said. “Ukraine not only defends its territory, but also deters further encroachments in Eastern Europe,” he said.He added that Ukraine was not asking other countries to deploy troops to Ukraine: “We do not want to give an extra reason for the Russian Federation to say that we have bases here and that they need to ‘protect’ themselves.”After the Soviet Union’s dissolution, Ukraine abruptly came into possession of the world’s third-largest nuclear arsenal. In 1994, the United States and Russia persuaded Kyiv to give up the weapons in return for security assurances, which were nonbinding agreements that didn’t require the United States to send troops to protect Ukraine.Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea has been viewed by the West as a breach of those assurances.Russia, Belarus leaders meet amid military exerciseReturn to menuMINSK, Belarus — Russian President Vladimir Putin received his Belarusian counterpart, Alexander Lukashenko, in the Kremlin on Friday as the two countries conducted massive military drills near the Ukrainian border.Putin greeted Lukashenko with a hug, and the two were seated at a small table, notably unlike the seating arrangement with a string of Western leaders, who were separated from the Russian president by a table 20 feet long.Lukashenko is hosting the Russian armed forces for a lengthy exercise involving air and ground troops along with ballistic missile systems capable of reaching Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv.The Washington Post’s Mary Ilyushina observes military drills with Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko on Feb. 17. (Mary Ilyushina, Jason Aldag/The Washington Post)Both Minsk and Moscow deny that they are preparing to attack their neighbor but have significantly ratcheted up the rhetoric against the Kyiv government and the West.“The military-political spectrum was brought to the center of the stage thanks to the effort of our Western partners, as you call them, and we have to react to this, including by holding military exercises and through diplomacy,” Lukashenko said Friday.Putin, in turn, invited Lukashenko to attend another major military exercise on Saturday that will involve launching strategic ballistic and cruise missiles.UNICEF urges protection for children in eastern Ukraine after kindergarten shellingReturn to menuThe United Nations children’s agency called for safe access to education for children in eastern Ukraine after the country’s military said an artillery shell hit a kindergarten building.Ukrainian officials said the kindergarten in the east was among civilian structures hit by artillery from Russian-backed separatist forces Thursday, heightening tensions in a region already on edge in the wake of Moscow’s troop buildup along the Ukrainian border.Three adult employees suffered concussions, the Ukrainian military said in a statement posted to social media, but no children were reported hurt. The kindergarten is located in an area where both Ukrainian troops and separatists withdrew from front-line positions in 2019 as part of an agreement to create a disengagement zone.Pro-Russian separatists accused Ukrainian government forces of opening fire, which Ukraine’s armed forces denied.Cease-fire violations in the country’s disputed eastern territories intensified Thursday and continued into Friday, according to European monitors.“Attacks on kindergartens and schools have been a sad reality for children in eastern Ukraine over the last eight years,” UNICEF said in a statement. More than 750 schools have been damaged during the conflict, “disrupting access to education for thousands of children on both sides of the contact line,” it said.“The conflict has taken a severe toll on the psychosocial well-being of an entire generation of children growing up in Eastern Ukraine,” the agency added. “UNICEF calls on all parties to … protect children and their caregivers from attacks, regardless of the circumstances they might find themselves in.”Kyiv prepared to evacuate residents, go on emergency footing in case of attackReturn to menuKYIV, Ukraine — The security chief for Ukraine’s capital said Friday that officials have plans ready to evacuate most of Kyiv’s 2.9 million residents in case of a major attack by Russian forces.The city is prepared to all but empty the metropolitan area, or to move residents from vulnerable neighborhoods to safer parts of the city, according to Roman Tkachuk, director of Kyiv’s Municipal Security Department.“The civilian safety system of the city of Kyiv is fully ready for mass evacuation of its citizens,” Tkachuk told The Washington Post.City officials could make an evacuation order mandatory, Tkachuk said, exempting only essential emergency workers, including military, police and medical personnel and staff needed to operate critical infrastructure.In the case of a general threat of attack, officials would use buses and trains to transport Kyiv residents to safe zones, probably in the western parts of the country. Tkachuk said planning has been informed by the city’s experience in 2014, when officials converted Kyiv’s main rail station into a transit hub to handle thousands of refugees fleeing the fighting in the eastern Donbas region.If only certain neighborhoods are targeted, the city will help residents find shelter in other parts of the metropolitan region. Kyiv’s 42-mile Metro system would cut operations to three morning hours and three evening hours in an emergency. Otherwise, the network’s 52 stations, including some of the deepest in the world, would operate as air-raid bunkers.Some stations and rail lines would be closed entirely, according to local media reports, allowing them to serve as full-time shelters. Workers have already tested the stations for air quality and ventilation and have had water supplies and toilets prepared for heavy use, the reports said.Kyiv residents have struggled to prepare for the possibility of an attack on the city as officials have downplayed the possibility of strikes on the capital.They have directed civilians to a network of Cold War-era bunkers throughout the city, although many of those remained locked, cluttered or repurposed as cafes, strip clubs and storage rooms.Some residents have already left the capital in recent days, relocating to cities to the west or to vacation homes in the Carpathian Mountains.Several Western governments have evacuated their staffs from Kyiv. U.S. Embassy officials have left the country or set up emergency operations in Lviv, near the Polish border.Alex Sipigin in Kyiv contributed to this report.Visiting Poland, U.S. defense secretary announces sale of 250 tanks Return to menuThe United States plans to sell 250 Abrams tanks to Poland, potentially boosting an important ally in Eastern Europe amid the escalating crisis in Ukraine.U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin announced the planned sale at a meeting in Warsaw with his Polish counterpart where they discussed the buildup of Russian forces around Ukraine.In a joint news conference, he also addressed Polish concerns about the deployment of Russian forces in Belarus, noting that some of them are “within 200 miles of the Polish border.”Austin said that additional Russian attacks on Ukraine could send people fleeing to Poland. The country “could see tens of thousands of displaced Ukrainians and others pouring across the border, trying to save themselves and their families from the scourge of war,” he said.Though he offered no timeline on the sale, Austin said the Abrams M1A1 tanks will “strengthen our interoperability with the Polish armed forces, boosting the credibility of our combined deterrence efforts and those of our other NATO allies.”Nearly 5,000 U.S. troops are now in Poland. Austin said Friday that they are prepared to respond to “a range of contingencies” and that the military would work with the State Department and Polish authorities should there be a need to help Americans leave Ukraine.He called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to choose the path of diplomacy but vowed that NATO allies would stand together if he did not. “It’s ironic that what Mr. Putin did not want to see happen was a stronger NATO on his flank,” he said. “And that’s exactly what he will see going forward.”