Americas

Americas

Putin could attack Ukraine on Feb. 16, Biden told allies

12 February 2022 06:02 (UTC +04:00)

National security adviser Jake Sullivan said a full Russian invasion of Ukraine could come before the end of the Beijing Olympics on Feb. 20, even as President Joe Biden today told his counterparts about Moscow’s forces possibly launching an incursion in five days, APA reports quoting Politico.

“Any American in Ukraine should leave as soon as possible, and in any event in the next 24 to 48 hours,” he said from the White House podium. “We don’t know what’s going to happen, but the risk is now high enough, and the threat is now immediate enough, that this is what prudence demands.” There won’t be a U.S. military effort to evacuate U.S. citizens from a Ukraine under siege, Sullivan asserted.

Shortly before Sullivan spoke, PBS NewsHour's Nick Schifrin reported the U.S. determined Russian President Vladimir Putin had decided to invade Ukraine and communicated that decision to his forces. Sullivan said the U.S. had yet to determine that Putin took a “final” decision.