Russian attack on Ukraine could be ‘hours or days’ away, national security adviser says

The White House national security adviser warned Monday that a Russian invasion of Ukraine could happen “in the coming hours or days” and predicted that an attack ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin could be “extremely violent” and would aim to “crush” the Ukrainian people.

Jake Sullivan made the statement on NBC’s “Today” show in response to a question about a Washington Post report that the US had informed the United Nations that Russia is compiling lists of Ukrainian dissidents “to be killed or sent to camps” following an invasion.

“We believe what the Russians are planning will be extremely violent,” Sullivan said. “It will cost the lives of Ukrainians and Russians, civilians and military personnel alike.”

“We also have intelligence to suggest that there will be an even greater form of brutality because this will not simply be some conventional war between two armies,” the adviser added.

“It will be a war waged by Russia on the Ukrainian people, to repress them, to crush them, to harm them, and that is what we laid out in detail for the UN [last week], because we believe that the world must mobilize to counter this kind of Russian aggression should those tanks roll across the border, as we anticipate they very well may do in the coming hours or days.”

Sullivan also echoed comments from the White House that President Biden is prepared “in principle” to meet with Putin despite Russia ramping up its forces along Ukraine. 

“So [French President Emmanuel Macron] asked President Biden yesterday if he was prepared in principle to meet with President Putin if Russia did not invade. Of course, President Biden said yes,” he said. “But every indication we see on the ground right now in terms of the disposition of Russian forces is that they are in fact getting prepared for a major attack on Ukraine.”

The Russian government played down any plans for a potential summit, warning Monday it is too early to discuss such high-level talks.

“It’s premature to talk about any specific plans for organizing any kind of summits,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

“There is an understanding that dialogue should be continued at the level of foreign ministers,” he said, adding that there are “no concrete plans in place” for a presidential summit.

“If necessary, of course, the Russian and American presidents can decide to hold a telephone call or connect via other methods,” Peskov said. “A meeting is possible if the heads of state consider it appropriate.”

Moscow’s resistance comes just hours after Washington extended an olive branch, with White House press secretary Jen Psaki saying in a statement Sunday night that Biden had “accepted in principle” a meeting with the Russian strongman.

Psaki, who reiterated the belief that Russia is on the brink of launching an attack, added: “We are always ready for diplomacy. We are also ready to impose swift and severe consequences should Russia instead choose war.”

Officials said earlier that the potential summit would follow a planned Thursday meeting between Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergey Lavrov.

Meanwhile, Peskov said Monday that Putin plans to chair an emergency meeting of the Kremlin’s Security Council later in the day.

Biden on Friday said he was “convinced” that Putin had decided to invade Ukraine “in the coming days.”

The idea of a summit has been championed by France and cautiously welcomed by Ukraine as a way to avert a Russian invasion and catastrophic war in Europe.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba welcomed the French effort.

“We believe that every effort aimed at a diplomatic solution is worth trying,” Kuleba said in Brussels ahead of a meeting with EU counterparts.

“We hope that the two presidents will walk out from the room with an agreement about Russia withdrawing its forces from Ukraine,” he added.

Lavrov was expected to speak by telephone with his French counterpart, Jean-Yves Le Drian, on Monday ahead of the scheduled talks with Blinken.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said there was no sign of Russian forces pulling back from the border, and that Moscow-backed rebels continue to shell Ukrainian positions.

“Since the beginning of this day, as of 09:00, 14 attacks have already been recorded, 13 of them from weapons prohibited by the Minsk agreements,” he told reporters in Kiev. “One of our soldiers was wounded.”

A spokesman for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday that British intelligence shows that Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is already underway.

“The intelligence we are seeing suggests that Russia intends to launch an invasion and that President Putin’s plan has already begun,” the spokesman told reporters, adding that Defense Secretary Ben Wallace would speak later Monday. “We’re seeing elements of the Russian playbook that we would expect to see in certain situations, starting to play out in real time.”

Meanwhile, Moscow said Monday that a shell fired from Ukraine had destroyed a border facility used by Russia’s Federal Security Service.

“On February 21, at 9:50 am (0650 GMT), an unidentified projectile fired from Ukraine completely destroyed a border facility used by the FSB border guard service in the Rostov region, around 150 meters from the Russian-Ukrainian border,” the security service said in a statement.

It said no one had been injured and that Russian military engineers had arrived at the scene.

Footage released by the FSB showed a small building with its roof and walls caved in and a Russian flag leaning against debris, according to Agence France-Presse.

News of the potential meeting between Biden and Putin came as it was revealed that the US received credible intelligence that Russia plans to carry out disturbing human rights abuses in the aftermath of an invasion of Ukraine.

Russia annexed the Ukrainian region of Crimea in 2014, and Moscow-backed separatists hold territory in the eastern districts of Lugansk and Donetsk.

Moscow has massed more than 150,000 troops around Ukraine’s borders in Belarus, Russia, Crimea and the Black Sea in recent weeks, according to US intelligence.

With Post wires