Biden: Russian troops plan to attack Ukraine in coming week, in coming days

KYIV. Feb 19 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The United States has reason to believe that Russian troops are planning to attack Ukraine in the coming week, in the coming days, U.S. President Joe Biden has said.

"We have reason to believe the Russian forces are planning to and intend to attack Ukraine in the coming week – in the coming days. We believe that they will target Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, a city of 2.8 million innocent people," Biden said in an address from the White House on Friday.

"We're calling out Russia's plans loudly and repeatedly, not because we want a conflict, but because we're doing everything in our power to remove any reason that Russia may give to justify invading Ukraine and prevent them from moving," he said.

"Over the last few days, we've seen reports of a major uptick in violations of the ceasefire by Russian-backed fighters attempting to provoke Ukraine in Donbas," Biden said.

"For example, a shelling of a Ukrainian kindergarten yesterday, which Russia has falsely asserted was carried out by Ukraine. We also continue to see more and more disinformation being pushed out by – to the Russian public, including the Russian-backed separatists, claiming that Ukraine is planning to launch a massive offensive attack in Donbas. Well, look, there is simply no evidence of these assertions, and it defies basic logic to believe the Ukrainians would choose this moment, with well over 150,000 troops arrayed on its borders, to escalate a year-long conflict," the president said.

According to him, Russia state media also continues to make phony allegations of a genocide taking place in Donbas and push fabricated claims warning about Ukraine's attack on Russia without any evidence.

"All these are consistent with the playbook the Russians have used before: to set up a false justification to act against Ukraine," Biden said.

"This is also in line with the pretext scenarios that the United States and our Allies and partners have been warning about for weeks," he said.

"Throughout these tense moments, the Ukrainian forces have shown great judgment and, I might add, restraint," Biden said.