US military forces intercepted a Russian attack order
President Joe Biden has not changed his mind about an imminent Russian attack on Ukraine, despite the doubts announced by Europe allies.
On Sunday, Biden called an emergency meeting of the National Security Council due to the high probability of a Russian attack on Ukraine.
The White House maintains its position of seriousness and the high possibility of a war in Europe.
Several US officials on Sunday gave details of Russia's rearmament and deployment on the borders, where they say that 75% of Russian soldiers are surrounding Ukraine waiting for the order to attack.
In recent statements, where Biden has reiterated that a war is imminent, questions from the press about the evidence for these claims are always answered with the same rhetoric: the United States manages the collection of important military intelligence.
In questions and answers with the media, the officials who have spoken (on condition of anonymity) gave more concrete answers: US military intelligence managed to intercept an order from Moscow to carry out a "full attack".
Kamala Harris in Munich
The United States media that went with Vice President Kamala Harris to the Security Conference in Munich, collected the doubts expressed by European diplomats in private.
A major US newspaper quoted a European diplomat who questioned "Putin's decision" and claimed that there were no grounds to support the US thesis of an invasion of Ukraine.
The United Kingdom has been the only one to maintain the same rhetoric as the United States with these warnings, through Liz Truss, British Foreign Minister, who assured that the invasion could be a reality "this very week."
The US president's position of firmly announcing the imminent invasion of Ukraine has raised doubts in Europe and the US media. Some US authorities have assured that this is part of Moscow's media strategy.
Julianne Smith, US ambassador to NATO, assured that Russia manages the strategy of "hybrid tactics" that includes, among other things, disinformation.
After the events in Ukraine in 2014, Smith has assured that the United States is handling more intelligent deterring and detecting disinformation campaigns.
The diplomat asserted that the best way to combat the disinformation strategy is with true information and applying the lessons learned from past mistakes to counteract the media campaign.
NATO and the European Union have had more than a dozen public studies on Russian interference, such as the 2016 presidential elections in the United States.
Likewise, Dereck Chollet, adviser to the State Department, reaffirmed what Smith said in a press conference, assuring that the world has been appreciating Russia's disinformation for years.
For the United States and some countries in Europe, Russia seeks to create a disinformation environment to simulate a Ukrainian attack and create the pretext to justify an attack on Ukraine.
The State Department and the White House have referenced these excuses in the past, mentioning 2014, highlighting an alleged false complaint by Putin where he claimed that the Ukrainian government was repressing the Russian population in the east of that country.
Currently, one of the arguments that have been used the most from Russia is something similar to those of the past.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused Ukraine of crimes against humanity in complicity with Western countries.
According to Dereck Chollet, the disinformation promoted by Russia has permeated the Western media. For this reason, they consider that they have been more transparent with the events.
According to the latest information issued by US Intelligence, Russia has deployed around 75% of its troops around Ukraine.
In addition, they have assured that the positioning of these troops is unusual due to the proximity, which is why the White House argues that Russia is only waiting for an order to start the massive attack.
On the other hand, the US authorities recently reported that the Russian military force deployed in combination with the separatist forces inside Ukraine may number around 190,000 soldiers.
A meeting between Biden and Putin is not planned for now
Russia's spokesman, Dmitri Peskov, considered it premature to talk about organizing summits where Biden and Putin are present. In addition, a meeting between the two leaders is not within Russia's plans at the moment.
For now, the Moscow authorities have assured that the talks between Russia and the United States will be held through the Foreign Ministers, Sergei Lavrov and Antony Blinken, who have scheduled a meeting this Thursday in Europe.
The Moscow spokesman announced that on Monday, President Putin will participate in an extraordinary meeting of the Security Council, although he did not specify what it was about, the media have intuited that it is about tension with Ukraine.
Internationalist experts do not rule out that in the next few hours, Vladimir Putin will announce definitive measures to contain the supposed Ukrainian attack against the separatist regions of Lugansk and Donetsk.
Peskov assured that the evacuation carried out of the citizens of Donbass was caused by the aggressions of the Ukrainian armed forces that has endangered the civilians who live in the region.
For the Russian president, the West is forcing Ukraine into an armed confrontation by sending military equipment. In addition, he assured that Kiev only "theatricalizes" the dialogue process and flatly refuses to comply with the Minsk agreements.
Russian troops will remain in Belarus
Last week, Russian troops began an apparent partial withdrawal from the Ukrainian border, a situation that was reversed due to the fact that the leaders of the separatist regions of Donbass began a massive evacuation.
The separatist authorities decreed the compulsory mobilization of men between 18 and 50 years old, increased armed attacks against the Kiev army and communicated all kinds of information collected about attacks by Ukraine.
The high point of this tension has led to the extension of the exercises of the Russian military forces that are being carried out in Belarus, although it had been stipulated that they end on Sunday, February 20.
On Sunday, Putin assured the French president that the situation in Ukraine's eastern region has become complicated due to Ukraine's provocations and reiterated that the rise in tension is not Moscow's compliance.
The Belarusian defense ministry issued a statement assuring that, by decision of Putin and the president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, the joint military exercises will continue as a result of the worsening of the armed conflict on the border with Ukraine.
This announcement seems to confirm what the West and NATO have been denouncing for a few months, that it is not a simple training but a preparation for a possible attack against Ukraine, not only from the border regions of Russia but also from Belarus.
The Belarusian Defense Minister, Victor Khrenin, denounced that the West has sent a huge amount of modern weapons to Ukraine, prioritizing the offensive.
Experts have been stressing that if Russia attacks Ukraine, it would focus on the defense of Donbass and its security. They have also questioned the creation of a total war that leads to the taking of Kiev or other important regions such as Kharkov, Odessa or Dnipro.
On the other hand, the opposition leader of Belarus, Svetlana Tijanovskaya, denounced that the permanence of Russian soldiers in Belarus is a "threat to the sovereignty of her country".
The opponent asserted that Belarus will get involved in a war that does not belong to it and they will become an aggressor nation.
Svetlana has reported that her mission from exile is currently requesting the support of the European Union and the UN to achieve the withdrawal of Russian military forces from her country.
Last week, Russia and Belarus promised that once the exercises are over, Russian forces would immediately return to their barracks on Russian soil.
However, Lukashenko assured that Russia's military deployment will remain on Belarusian territory after the end of the military exercises.
He also stressed that the troops of Russia and Belarus would return to their permanent barracks when ordered, for the moment they will remain on maneuvers "until necessary."
In a clear show of force, on Saturday Putin and Lukashenko supervised nuclear training fired from the air, sea and land from the control center in Minsk.