Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his country’s deterrence forces — which include nuclear arms — onto their highest state of alert on Sunday, February 27, 2022, as Ukrainian forces engaged in fierce fighting with Russian troops in multiple cities across Ukraine.
The Russian leader’s move comes in the face of universal condemnation and increased sanctions from Western powers over Moscow’s unprovoked assault on Ukraine, now in its fourth day.
“Top officials in leading NATO countries have allowed themselves to make aggressive comments about our country, therefore I hereby order the Minister of Defense and the chief of the General Staff to place the Russian Army Deterrence Force on combat alert,” Putin said in a televised meeting with top Russian defense officials.
Putin also said the Western sanctions placed on Russia were unlawful.
A senior US official told CNN that the new development is Putin’s latest attempt to manufacture threats to justify aggression.
“The only reason his forces face a threat today is that they invaded a sovereign country, and one without nuclear weapons,” said the official. “This is yet another escalatory and totally unnecessary step.”
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office confirmed that a Ukrainian delegation would meet with a Russian delegation for talks on the Ukraine-Belarus border following assurances from Belarusian President Aleksander Lukashenko.
Ukraine’s Deputy Interior Minister Evgeny Yenin said the talks would take place Monday morning local time.
Zelensky had earlier said he would be willing to hold talks with Russia but not in Belarus, pointing out that Russian military actions are being launched from that country.
On Sunday, Zelensky said in a brief televised statement that he doesn’t expect much from the meeting.
“I will say frankly, as always: I do not really believe in the result of this meeting, but let them try. So that no citizen of Ukraine would have any doubt that I, as president, did not try to stop the war when there was even a small chance,” Zelensky said.
Ukraine has said its air force shot down a cruise missile launched at Kyiv on Sunday from Belarus. Belarus is an ally of Russia and has played an important role in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Zelensky’s office said Lukashenko had called his Ukrainian counterpart on Sunday. “The politicians have agreed that the Ukrainian delegation will meet with the Russian delegation without preconditions on the Ukrainian-Belarusian border, near the Pripyat River,” Zelensky’s office said.
“Aleksander Lukashenko has taken responsibility for ensuring that all planes, helicopters, and missiles stationed on the Belarusian territory will remain on the ground during the Ukrainian delegation’s travel, meeting, and return.”
As the fighting continues, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians have fled their homes and dozens of civilians have been killed, according to UN figures.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told a briefing that Putin’s order to put Russian deterrent forces on alert was a “direct threat to us” and an effort to raise pressure on the Ukrainian delegation at Monday’s scheduled talks.
Kuleba indicated that Ukrainian officials are willing to “listen to what Russia has to say” but will not give in to pressure. “We will tell them what we think of this,” he said. “And what we are ready to discuss is how to stop the war and the occupation of our territories. Full stop.”
Kuleba said that, according to Ukrainian intelligence, even people within Putin’s inner circle do not agree with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, “because they understand the detrimental, the damaging, the devastating consequences this conflict will have for Russia itself.”
Source: CNN
