:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/elfinanciero/HOZ6N7LZ5FFIDCWUZ7NOACG5IQ.jpg "Putin already ordered to attack and invade Ukraine, they say in the US – El Financiero")
WASHINGTON, DC- Amid rising tensions and a deteriorating situation in Ukrainethe president of the United States, Joe Bidenheld an urgent session of his National Security Council at the White House, but at the same time, his government sent new signals of its willingness to meet “at any time, in any format” with Vladimir Putinbecause he has already given orders to the commanders of attackaccording to US intelligence services.
On the eve of Presidents’ Day, Biden met with his chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, and the Secretaries of Defense, Lloyd Austin; Treasury Janet Yellen; of State, Antony Blinken; of National Security, Alejandro Mayorkas; of Energy, Jennifer Granholm; the Attorney General, Merrick Garland, and the National Security Adviser, Jake Sullivan, among other officials.
The unexpected session of the national security apparatus took place after two officials close to the intelligence services of United States They leaked to CNN and other media that Russian tactical commanders in the theater had received orders to attack, although the precise timing was not specified.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe reported 975 ceasefire violations in the Lugansk region on Friday and 591 in the Donetsk region, amid Russian troops remaining in Belarus, despite joint military exercises should have ended.
“Now they are justifying the continuation of the exercises that they said would end now, the indefinite continuation of those exercises, in quotes, on the situation in eastern Ukraine, a situation that they created by continuing to escalate tensions,” Blinken told the network. CNN, as part of a series of appearances on Sunday shows.
The secretary confirmed that Putin made the decision to attack, but reiterated that Biden remains willing to meet “at any time, in any format” with Putin. “We believe that the president Putin The decision has been made, but until the tanks are rolling and the planes are flying, we will take every opportunity and every minute we have to see if diplomacy can still dissuade the Russian president from taking this forward.”
In this framework, the administration Biden rejected the demand made the day before during the Munich Security Conference, by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in the sense that the United States should make known in detail the sanctions that it would impose on Russia, in the event of an invasion, and apply them in a preventive.
“The purpose of sanctions, in the first instance, is to try to dissuade Russia to go to war. As soon as you activate them, that deterrent is gone. And until the last minute, as long as we can try to bring a deterrent effect to this, we’re going to try to do that,” Blinken said.
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