Feb 16, 2022: According to a report by AFP, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky urged citizens to celebrate a “Day of Unity” on Wednesday, as Washington warned once again that Russia remains poised to launch a devastating assault.

The date was chosen for what he hoped would be a patriotic outpouring after US reports suggested Russian forces could attack as early as February 16.

This month has been a flurry of diplomatic activity between Western Europe and Russia to head off the crisis triggered when Russia deployed more than 100,000 troops on Ukraine’s borders, backed with fleet reinforcements and powerful artillery and missile systems.

Yesterday, hopes of a diplomatic resolution being successful emerged after Russia ends some military exercises, signaling a possible easing of the crisis. Meanwhile, late on Monday, a meeting between President Putin and Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov seemed to signal a change in tone, with the latter stressing there was “always a chance” for agreement with the West over Ukraine.

Lavrov told Putin that exchanges with leaders in European capitals and Washington showed enough of an opening for progress on Russia’s goals to be worth pursuing, and worth continuing to which Putin replied, “fine.”

After meeting Scholz in Moscow, Putin said Russia “of course” did not want war, and was willing to look for solutions with the West.

“We are ready to work further together. We are ready to go down the negotiations track,” Putin told a joint press conference with Scholz.

In response, Scholz said: “That we are now hearing that some troops are being withdrawn is in any case a good sign.”

“For Europeans, it is clear that lasting security cannot be achieved against Russia but only with Russia.”

Despite these developments since President Vladimir Putin met Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz to explore a route to a negotiated solution and Moscow said it had begun to pull back some forces. US President Joe Biden — who has ordered Washington’s embassy in Kyiv closed and urged Americans to leave Ukraine — demanded that Russia prove its good intentions with a verifiable withdrawal.

“Analysts indicate that they remain very much in a threatening position,” Biden said, in an address on the crisis. “The United States is prepared no matter what happens. We are ready with diplomacy,” he said.

“And we are ready to respond decisively to Russian attack on Ukraine, which is still very much a possibility,” he said, warning of “powerful sanctions”.

The crisis – the worst between Russia and the West since the end of the Cold War – reached a climax this week, with US officials warning of a full-scale strike – perhaps on Wednesday. Zelensky reacted with sarcasm to the warning, calling Wednesday “Unity Day.”

The U.S and its ally Britain continue to warn of an imminent attack by Russia with Britain’s foreign secretary, Liz Truss, saying on Tuesday that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was likely, could be imminent and could pose a threat to Europe’s wider stability, encouraging aggression around the world.

General Kenneth Wilsbach, head of U.S Pacific Air Forces, meanwhile, warned the world that China had aligned itself with Russia in the crisis, raising questions about own intentions in Asia. Chine may take advantage of the Ukraine crisis and do something “provocative” in Asia while Western powers are focused on defusing tensions with Russia, warned Wilsbach.

On its part Russia announced a withdrawal from among the troops Russia massed on the Ukrainian border, the defence ministry in Moscow said some soldiers were returning to bases at the end of planned exercises.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said while there was not yet “any sign of de-escalation on the ground” there were “grounds for cautious optimism”.

In a separate development on Tuesday, Ukraine said the websites of the country’s defence ministry and armed forces as well as two banks had been hit by a cyberattack that could have Russian origins.

Moreover, late on Tuesday, Russian lawmakers urged Putin to recognize pro-Russian separatists regions of eastern Ukraine as “sovereign and independent states”. Such a move is likely to anger Kyiv and will allow Russia to abandon the Minsk agreements peace plan for eastern Ukraine and potentially move in Russian troops — giving Putin a strong hand to play in any future negotiations with Kyiv.

On its part, the EU “strongly” condemned such a move, saying it would violate the Minsk agreements that Moscow had signed up to.

Russia has repeatedly blamed the West for the Ukraine crisis, saying the U.S and Western Europe were ignoring Russia’s legitimate security concerns. The Kremlin insists that NATO must assure that Ukraine will never be recognized as a member and that the alliance will withdraw its presence in several Eastern European and former Soviet countries.

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