The West is on alert regarding the tensions between Ukraine and Russia as fears of an open conflict or an invasion are high. Lithuania’s foreign minister warned that Moscow is certainly preparing for a military conflict with Ukraine.
At a European Union foreign affairs meeting this week, Lithuanian foreign minister Gabrielus Landsbergis said Monday that Russia is certainly preparing for war against Ukraine. Landsbergis also said that the European Union and the United States must respond should Russia carry out an attack against Ukraine. This follows reports of Russian troop buildup at the border between the two countries and rhetoric that raised concerns among western nations.
“I think that we are convinced that Russia is actually preparing for the all-out war against Ukraine, and it’s an unprecedented event, probably since the Second World War,” said Landsbergis during the meeting.
The US has pledged to prevent any Russian invasion of Ukraine from happening with President Joe Biden saying early this month that he intends to make it difficult for Russia to launch any invasion. Biden’s comments were prior to his video call with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss the tensions.
Speaking with reporters in Washington, the US leader said that he was putting together a series of steps that would make it difficult for Putin to launch an invasion against Ukraine. Both nations still have tensions following Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, with separatists clashing with Kyiv and resulting in over 13,000 people dead.
A previous report by the Washington Post citing US officials and an intelligence document revealed that Moscow was planning a multi-front offensive strategy that would see up to 175,000 of its troops in place as soon as 2022. Ukrainian officials have also said that Moscow has begun its military exercises close to Ukrainian territory.
Express reports that Putin has sent a major weapon to the Ukrainian border. The weapon was the Buk-M1 medium-range surface-to-air missiles and was sent to the front lines. The missile gained notoriety in 2014 after a missile launched from Russian proxy-backed territory in Ukraine shot down a Malaysian airline and killed 298 people.