BIDEN AND PUTIN TO TALK AS UKRAINE WARNINGS MOUNT

Sat 12 February 2022:

After the US warned that a Russian invasion of Ukraine may start in days, US President Joe Biden is scheduled to speak with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Saturday.

Presidents Biden and Putin are set to hold talks on Saturday as Washington detailed increasingly vivid accounts of a possible attack on Ukraine.

Putin requested for the telephone call to take place on Monday, a White House official said, but Biden wanted to conduct it sooner.

Putin, jostling for influence in post-Cold War Europe, is seeking security guarantees from Biden to block Kyiv’s entry into NATO and missile deployments near Russia’s borders.

Washington regards many of the proposals as non-starters but has pushed the Kremlin to discuss them jointly with Washington and its European allies.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he will speak with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Saturday, and that if Russia invades Ukraine, Washington and its allies will immediately apply heavy economic sanctions.

More than 30 Russian ships start drills near Crimea – RIA

More than 30 ships from the Russian Black Sea fleet have started training exercises near the Crimea peninsula as part of wider navy drills, RIA news agency reported.

RIA said that more than 30 Russian ships have left the ports of Sevastopol and Novorossiisk “in accordance to the plans of the drills” near Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

RIA said the aim of the drills was the defence of the coast of Crimea, the outposts of the Black Sea fleet as well as the economy sector and naval communications.

UK tells its citizens in Ukraine not to expect military evacuation

British nationals who choose to stay in Ukraine should not expect a military evacuation if conflict with Russia ensues, junior defence minister James Heappey told Sky News.

“British nationals should leave Ukraine immediately by any means possible and they should not expect, as they saw in the summer with Afghanistan, that there would be any possibility of a military evacuation,” he said.

On Friday, the UK government advised British nationals to leave Ukraine immediately while commercial means were still available and advised against all further travel to the country.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

FOLLOW INDEPENDENT PRESS:

TWITTER (CLICK HERE)
https://twitter.com/IpIndependent