Truss: Russian assurances they will not invade Ukraine are ‘false’
Russia’s assurances that they have no plans to invade Ukraine are “false”, according to foreign secretary Liz Truss.
Truss last night warned against Russia’s “attempts to subvert and threaten” its neighbour in the wake of new US intelligence suggesting Vladimir Putin could invade Ukraine in just days.
New US intelligence assessments found Russia is close to completing its preparations for a potential invasion and that a war could lead to 50,000 civilians killed or wounded, according to the Washington Post.
Truss will travel to Moscow this week to meet with Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov in a bid to advance a diplomatic solution to the crisis.
Attempts to broker a peaceful solution have been unsuccessful, with the US refusing to agree to Russia demands to block Ukraine from ever joining Nato.
“The depths of Russian attempts to subvert and threaten Ukraine are clear,” she said
“Russia’s actions show their claims to have no plans to invade are false. We and our allies stand united in support for Ukraine and our resolve to raise the cost to Russia if they take further action.”
Russia has 100,000 troops stationed around the entire Ukrainian border.
The US and UK have sent military aid to Ukraine, however both have said they will not send troops in the event of a Russian invasion.
Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba was today less gloomy about the situation than Truss.
“Do not believe the apocalyptic predictions,” he said.
“Different capitals have different scenarios, but Ukraine is ready for any development. Today, Ukraine has a strong army, unprecedented international support, and Ukrainians’ faith in their country. This enemy should be afraid of us, not us.”
Russian UN representative Dmitry Polyanskiy accused the US of “madness and scaremongering”.
“What if we would say the US could seize London in a week and cause 300K civilian deaths? All this based on our intelligence sources that we won’t disclose,” he said.