Russia’s invasion so far has played out largely as the Biden administration said it would back in December, with nearly 2,00,000 troops striking from several sides of Ukraine….reports Asian Lite News
The United States had released many intelligence findings about a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine for last few months.
The White House had released details of Russian troop buildups and warned repeatedly that a major assault was imminent. In the end, Putin attacked anyway.
According to a report from Associated Press, critics of US intelligence — including Russian officials who dismissed invasion allegations as fantasy — had been pointing to past failures like the false identification of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
But Russia’s invasion so far has played out largely as the Biden administration said it would back in December, with nearly 2,00,000 troops striking from several sides of Ukraine.
Lawmakers from both political parties on Thursday said the accurate predictions were a credit to the often-criticised US intelligence community, it was reported.
But whether the White House’s unprecedented public campaign delayed or limited Putin’s plans could be debated for years. And some say both Washington and Kyiv could have done more with the information the two governments had beforehand.
The Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for months tried to publicly downplay American warnings of an imminent major outbreak, noting that Ukraine remained locked in an eight-year war over the eastern Donbas region fighting Russian-backed separatists. Zelenskyy did not call up military reservists until Wednesday, when he also announced a 30-day state of emergency., it was reported.
According to the report, A Ukrainian government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Kyiv was convinced about two weeks ago that Russia would invade. But the government publicly tamped down concerns about an invasion to limit damage to Ukraine’s economy and panic in the country, the official said.
Any mass mobilisation of Ukrainian forces could have given additional pretext to Putin, who repeatedly and falsely claimed Ukraine was planning to attack separatist-held parts of the Donbas, it was reported.
Meanwhile, Zelensky has made yet another plea to Western allies to help Ukraine and stop Russia’s brutal assault, BBC reported.
“This morning we are defending our state alone. Like yesterday, the world’s most powerful forces are watching from afar,” Zelensky said in his address to the nation this morning.
“Was Russia convinced by yesterday’s sanctions? We hear in our sky and see on our earth that this was not enough”, BBC reported.
The Ukrainian leader has confirmed the multiple missile strikes reported pre-dawn Friday. Zelensky said the strikes began at 4 a.m. on Friday local time.
He added that Russia’s strikes had targetted both military and civilian sites. Russia has previously said it’s not aiming strikes at civilians, the report said.
The capital Kyiv has seen blasts this morning, including what appears to be a strike that hit a residential building.
