Putin warned Biden of a future conflict between Moscow and NATO
As of Monday, Ukraine’s airspace will be effectively closed to air traffic due to the actions of Western insurance companies, the website Strana.ua reported.
“No plane will take off or land in Ukraine from around midday on Monday,” said an insurance company spokesman.
The largest insurers in the UK, working with other international companies, have sent an official announcement to all global airline owners that insurance coverage in Ukraine for each aircraft stops working after 48 hours.
However, Ukrainian authorities said they saw no point in closing their airspace despite escalating tensions with Russia.
At the same time, however, the German airline Lufthansa announced that it is considering whether to stop flying through Ukrainian airspace, but a decision has not yet been made. The Ukrainian company Skype has announced that its plane flying from Madeira landed in Chisinau, the capital of Moldova, instead of Kiev, because the Irish owner of the machine has banned it from entering Ukrainian airspace. Earlier, the Dutch company KLM announced that due to the deteriorating security situation, it will temporarily suspend its flights to Kiev.
In 2014, a Malaysia Airlines plane flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was shot down over eastern Ukraine. All on board were killed – 283 passengers and a 15-member crew.
“Vladimir
Putin is not
interested in
the risk of western
sanctions,
if it invades Ukraine, “said Russian Ambassador to Sweden Viktor Tatarintsev. The diplomat added that the more pressure the West puts on Russia, the stronger the response it will receive from Moscow.
“We have already had so many sanctions and they have had a positive effect on our economy and agriculture. We are self-sufficient, we have managed to increase our exports. We don’t have Italian or Swiss cheeses, but we have learned to make equally good Russian cheeses according to Italian and Swiss recipes, “Tatarintsev said of future EU and US sanctions.
At the same time, information emerged over the weekend that US intelligence had received information about an impending Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 16. The US president even warned his allies in Europe of a future attack on Wednesday. He was briefed by the Pentagon in detail on specific routes that could be taken by Russian troops.
At the White House, President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, declined to comment. “We are not saying that President Putin has made a final decision,” he said.
If an attack does take place, two unequal armies compared to David and Goliath will face each other, Deutsche Welle notes. The publication adds that the Russian is significantly superior to the Ukrainian, which does not mean that a possible attack on Ukraine does not pose a danger to the Russians.
Compared to 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea, the Ukrainian army has been significantly modernized and soldiers are better trained, for which NATO has played an important role.
Fearing war, Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin spent 62 minutes on a secure telephone line to discuss the Ukrainian crisis.
The US president has warned his Russian counterpart that the United States and its allies will give a “decisive answer” if Russia invades Ukraine. “President Biden stressed that a new Russian invasion of Ukraine will cause suffering to many people and damage Russia’s reputation,” the White House said.
For his part, Putin has said that Ukraine’s eventual accession to NATO could lead to military confrontation between Russia and the alliance.
The Russian leader also noted that Washington and Brussels had not heeded Moscow’s key demands: a halt to further enlargement of the alliance, the withdrawal of NATO’s military infrastructure in Europe from 1997 and the refusal to deploy strike weapons systems nearby. to the Russian borders.
The Washington Post claims that the United States is considering sending additional US forces on a rotating basis on NATO’s eastern flank. It is about positioning military groups
in combat readiness
in Romania,
Bulgaria,
Slovakia and Hungary.
According to an unnamed diplomat, any deployment of troops to these countries will depend on whether the local government is willing to accept them.
Due to the information about the growing danger from Russia, the United States, as well as European countries, including Bulgaria, called on their citizens to leave Ukraine. A similar call was made by Israel.
Radev will look for a common position on the crisis with the Cabinet and the party leader
President Rumen Radev, the government and the parties represented in parliament at the National Security Advisory Council are expected to come up with a common position on tensions between Russia and Ukraine tomorrow.
The head of state convened the council a day after Defense Minister Stefan Yanev acknowledged that the accumulation of Russian troops on the border with Ukraine also threatens Bulgaria’s national security.
On Friday, for the same reason, Prime Minister Kiril Petkov convened the Security Council of the Council of Ministers with ministers and heads of services. Even then, he announced that several scenarios were being considered, with the worst option being for Russia to stop exporting gas to Europe, which would severely affect Bulgaria.
The Prime Minister, ministers, the head of the National Assembly and the chairmen of parliamentary groups are rightfully involved in the presidential council. Two days after Bulgaria’s decision, it is expected to be taken by all NATO countries at a meeting of military ministers.
Yesterday, a crisis headquarters was formed at our Ministry of Foreign Affairs to constantly monitor the situation in and around Ukraine. The Bulgarian authorities advised our compatriots there to take measures to leave the country.
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