Moscow denies, but the US relaunches: "Russia is about to launch an attack on Ukraine". The strategy of the Washington administration to keep the Kremlin in check, which has amassed 130,000 soldiers on the border with the Kiev territory, is now clear: anticipating its moves in the media, even at the cost of being accused of alarmism or - in the words of the Russian Foreign Minister Serghei Lavrov - of "hysteria".
After having launched the alert on the imminent invasion , the White House in these hours reiterated, through the Secretary of State Antony Blinken, that Russia could create a "false pretext" to start the offensive. "Nobody should be surprised if Russia creates an accident to justify the military action it had always planned," Blinken said.
But even Great Britain is increasingly convinced that Moscow is on the verge of advancing across the border. "Putin could send his troops massed on the borders to Ukraine at any time," said London Defense Minister Ben Wallace. "What worries - added Wallace - is that despite the increase in diplomatic efforts, military strengthening is continued. It did not stop, it continued ".
The British Defense Minister also likened Western diplomatic efforts to
averting a Russian invasion of Ukraine to the deal with Nazi Germany before World War II. In an interview with the Sunday Times, the London minister said "there is an atmosphere reminiscent of Munich in some Western countries" referring to the conference held in the city of Bavaria in 1938 which handed over parts of the then Czechoslovakia to Adolf Hitler. in the unsuccessful attempt to avoid the great conflict in Europe.
Germany is on the same wavelength. “The situation of the Ukrainian crisis has become" critical ", said a German government source, on the eve of Chancellor Olaf Scholz's visits to Kiev and Moscow. "Our concern has grown" and "we think the situation is critical, very dangerous," the source explained to reporters in Berlin.
Pope Francis also spoke of the crisis between Russia and Ukraine during the Angelus: “The news coming from Ukraine is very worrying. I entrust every effort for peace to the intercession of the Virgin Mary and to the conscience of political leaders ".
(Unioneonline / lf)