Amid increased shelling in Eastern Ukraine Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron was intensifying efforts to compel American and Russian presidents to meet in a bid to avert Europe’s gravest security crisis since the Cold War.
President Joe Biden accepted a meeting with President Vladimir Putin “in principle” if Russia doesn’t invade Ukraine first, according to the White House. The Kremlin said there were “no concrete plans” for a summit, but had not ruled one out.
In a series of phone calls that dragged late into the night on Sunday, Macron tried to broker a meeting between his American and Russian counterparts in a bid to avert an invasion.
A U.S. official and another person with knowledge of the matter said Sunday that the U.S. had obtained intelligence showing that Russian military officials were given an order to go ahead with an invasion.
The intelligence, which was developed very recently, informed Biden’s startling declaration Friday that the U.S. believes Putin has already decided to invade, they said.
Separately, the U.S. has warned the United Nations that it believes Russia has plans to kill large numbers of critics, dissidents and “vulnerable populations” in Ukraine or send them to camps after the expected invasion. The Kremlin denied the report Monday, calling it “an absolute lie.”
Russia has been amassing tens of thousands of troops near Ukraine’s borders in recent weeks, prompting fears of an invasion that it firmly denies its planning.
Moscow has extended massive military drills with its close ally Belarus, to Ukraine’s north. The drills were meant to wrap up on Sunday, adding to the tensions and speculation that Russia could use the military build-up there to attack Ukraine from the north.
Putin was set to hold an unscheduled meeting of his Security Council on Monday, according to the Kremlin.
The renewed flurry of diplomacy comes amid increased shelling in Ukraine, where independent monitors over the weekend reported a markedly rise in the number of cease-fire violations.
The U.S. and the West fear the conflict in Eastern Ukraine, which has been brewing between Moscow-backed separatists and government forces since 2014, could lead to a wider conflict.
The U.S. and its allies have accused Russia of planning to stage “false flag” operations in the region that could be used as an excuse for an incursion.
Since the shelling in the region began escalating on Thursday, the Ukrainian forces and separatists have traded blame and accused each other of provocations. Ukraine’s military said two Ukrainian soldiers had been killed in the increased violence over the weekend, and the separatist forces reported two civilian deaths on Sunday.
Ukraine said late Sunday the separatist forces fired on rebel-controlled Luhansk in a provocation aimed at laying blame on the Ukrainian forces.
Meanwhile, Russia’s FSB security service said on Monday a shell from Ukrainian territory had completely destroyed a border guard post in Russia’s Rostov region but had caused no casualties, the state-run Interfax news agency reported. The incident occurred around 500 feet from the border between Russia and Ukraine, Interfax cited the FSB as saying.
Ukraine’s defense minister Oleksii Reznikov told reporters that Ukraine had “nothing to do” with the attack. In a separate statement, Ukraine’s border service called FBS’s claims “an outright provocation.”
On Monday, both Ukrainian forces and separatists reported continued shelling of residential settlements.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described the situation in Eastern Ukraine as “extremely tense” on Monday.
Separatist leaders called for evacuations of civilians to Russia last week, warning of an imminent Ukrainian offensive on the separatist-controlled areas. Ukraine has repeatedly denied any plans to carry out attacks on the region, saying it wants a resolution by diplomatic means.
More than 60,000 evacuees have arrived in Russia as of Monday, according to Russian emergency ministry officials.
Fears of a Russian invasion have caused collateral damage for Ukrainian economy, but on Monday, Russia’s markets also showed signs of nervousness.
The ruble slid to a more than three-week low, and Russian stocks plunged, Reuters reported.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
