Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke about the escalating crisis over Ukraine for the first time in over a month on Tuesday, amid a series of high level talks to avert the threat of war as Russian troops mass by the tens of thousands on the borders of Ukraine.
WHAT DOES PUTIN WANT?
Putin said the U.S. and its allies have ignored Russia’s top security demands but added that Moscow is still open for more talks with the West on easing soaring tensions over Ukraine.
In his first comments in over a month about the crisis, Putin noted that the U.S. and its allies have ignored the Kremlin’s demands for guarantees that NATO won’t expand to Ukraine, won’t deploy weapons near the Russian border and will roll back its forces from Eastern Europe.
— Vladimir Isachenkov
HOW IS UKRAINE SHORING UP ITS DEFENSES?
Ukraine has announced a new trilateral political alliance with Britain and Poland and a decree expanding the army by 100,000 troops.
Tuesday’s announcements by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy come amid visits by the British and Polish prime ministers, who promised support for Ukraine.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki promised to deliver more weapons to Ukraine, including portable air defense systems, drones, mortars and ammunition. He noted that Russia’s neighbors feel like they are living “next to a volcano.”
The U.K. said it had seen “no indication of Russia de-escalating” its military buildup near Ukraine, as Prime Minister Boris Johnson flew to Kyiv on Tuesday to meet with Zelenskyy.
Zelenskyy signed a decree Tuesday expanding the country’s army by 100,000 troops, bringing the total number to 350,000 in the next three years, and raising army wages.
— Yunas Karmanau
WHAT ARE THE U.S. AND EUROPE DOING AGAINST POTENTIAL CYBERATTACKS?
A top White House cybersecurity official is in Europe meeting with U.S. allies to help coordinate efforts to defend against and respond to potential cyberattacks launched by Russia against Ukraine and others.
Anne Neuberger, the deputy National Security Advisor for cyber and emerging technology, is traveling to Brussels and Warsaw during a week-long trip to meet with NATO allies, senior Biden administration officials said Tuesday.
The purpose of the trip is to ensure that the U.S. and its allies are prepared for all cyber-related contingencies if the situation in Ukraine were to escalate, officials said.
Russia has launched significant cyberattacks against Ukraine previously and would almost certainly do so again as part of any operation against its neighbor. Such hostile activity against Ukraine could spread far and wide, as the devastating notPetya attack did in 2017.
— Alan Suderman
WHAT WOULD A UKRAINIAN RESISTANCE LOOK LIKE?
The eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv is divided between people who are enthusiastically volunteering to join a civil resistance to a potential Russian invasion and those who just want to live their lives.
Which side wins out in Kharkiv, which is Ukraine’s second largest city and is just 40 kilometers (25 miles) from where Russian troops are massing, could well determine the fate of the country.
A guerrilla war fought by dentists, coaches and housewives defending a hometown of a 1,000 basement shelters would be a nightmare for Russian military planners, according to both analysts and U.S. intelligence officials. And that’s exactly what many people in Kharkiv — and across Ukraine — say they’re planning to do.
“Both our generation and our children are ready to defend themselves. This will not be an easy war,” said Maryna Tseluiko, a 40-year-old baker who signed up as a reservist with her 18-year-old daughter in Kyiv.
— Mystyslav Chernov and Lori Hinnant
WHY DOES RUSSIA SAY IT DIDN’T SEND A RESPONSE TO US?
Russia says the U.S. misinterpreted a request for clarification as their response to an American proposal aimed at deescalating the Ukraine crisis.
Multiple Biden administration officials had said that the Russian government had provided a written response to the U.S. proposals, but Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko on Tuesday told Russia’s state RIA Novosti news agency that this was “not true.”
The agency also cited an unnamed senior diplomat in the Russian Foreign Ministry as saying that Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov sent a message to his Western colleagues, including U.S. State Secretary Antony Blinken, about “the principle of indivisibility of security,” but said it wasn’t a response to Washington’s proposals.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Tuesday that there has been “confusion” — Russia’s response to the U.S. proposals is still in the works, and what was sent “were other considerations on a somewhat different issue.”
— Daria Litvinova
