‘Will Plan Vacation’: Russia Mocks US Over Ukraine; NATO Refutes Retreat Claims
Some papers had indeed published claims of US officials predicting 16 February to be the day Moscow attacks Kyiv.
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Maria Zakharova, a spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry, in a scathing mockery of of the United States and the United Kingdom along with their media, asked them on Wednesday, 16 February, to release a timetable of Russia’s "upcoming invasions" of Ukraine for 2022.
"I'd like to request US and British disinformation: Bloomberg, The New York Times and The Sun media outlets to publish the schedule for our upcoming invasions for the year. I’d like to plan my vacation," she said on her Telegram channel.
The New York Times had indeed published the claims of a few anonymous US officials who had said that Russia is considering 16 February as the possible date to invade Ukraine.
Other western media outlets like Politico had also released a "the date of invasion".
US President Joe Biden said that that Russia could attack Ukraine on 16 February, Politico had reported.
Another Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, labelled these predictions as "empty and groundless" that would do nothing but escalate tensions.
He further insisted that Russia was not planning to launch any attack whatsoever, the Russian News Agency TASS reported.
'Privately Mobilising for War'
Meanwhile, despite the Russian Defence Ministry's claim that it has ordered its troops deployed at the Ukrainian border to retreat, the NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Wednesday that Russia is continuing top send troops towards the border.
The announcement came a few hours before a senior US official told reporters that Russia's claims regarding the withdrawal were "false".
In fact, according to the official, Moscow had "increased its troop presence along the Ukrainian border by as many as 7,000 troops", especially in the last 24 hours.
"Every indication we have now is they mean only to publicly offer to talk and make claims about de-escalation while privately mobilising for war" the official, speaking to The Guardian anonymously, added.
Stoltenberg wanted about the private mobilisation too:
Warning about the amassing of Russian fighting forces on the Ukrainian border, a mobilisation that he said is "unprecedented since the Cold War", Stoltenberg added that "It is not too late for Russia to step back from the brink of conflict and choose the path of peace", as quoted in The Guardian.
The former prime minister of Norway further said that NATO would consider sending troops to eastern and Central Europe.
Tensions have been simmering for months between Ukraine, NATO, and the US on one side and Russia on the other, with the latter mobilising more than 100,000 troops at the Russo-Ukrainian border.
Russian President Vladimir Putin wants a guarantee that NATO would never welcome Ukraine into the alliance, citing fears of Western European expansionism.
Both NATO and the US have categorically rejected this demand.
A detailed explainer on the background of the crisis can be found here.
(With inputs from The Guardian, NYT, and Politico)
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