RUSSIA READY TO ACCEPT UKRAINE TEST-POWERED NUCLEAR CRUISE MISSILES

By: Steve Johnson

Truenewsblog – Russia’s strategic nuclear forces held exercises overseen by President Vladimir Putin on Saturday, and Washington accused Russian troops gathered near the border with Ukraine of advancing and “ready to strike.”

The Kremlin said Russia successfully tested hypersonic and cruise missiles at sea during exercises of the nuclear forces. Putin watched the drills on screens with Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko from a “situation room.”

Amid mounting Western war fears, the White House said US President Joe Biden’s national security team had told him they still believed Russia could launch an attack in Ukraine “at any time” and he planned to call his top advisers on Sunday bring together to discuss the crisis.

Foreign ministers from the G7 group of rich nations said they had seen no evidence that Russia was reducing its military activities in the region and remained “deeply concerned” about the situation.

After Kiev and Moscow exchanged allegations of new bombing near the border, France and Germany ordered all or some of their citizens in Ukraine to leave Ukraine. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said Russian forces were beginning to “unwind and move closer to the border”.

“We hope that he (Putin) will step down from the brink of conflict,” Austin told a news conference in Lithuania, saying an invasion of Ukraine is not inevitable.

Russia ordered the military build-up and called on NATO to prevent Ukraine from ever joining the alliance, but says Western warnings that it is planning to invade Ukraine are hysterical and dangerous. Moscow says it’s retreating, but Washington and allies say the build-up is increasing.

Washington and NATO say Moscow’s key demands are a failure, but fears of Putin’s plans are growing in Ukraine.

At a security conference in Munich, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy vented his frustration, saying the global security architecture was “almost broken”. He called on the permanent members of the UN Security Council, Germany and Turkey, to meet to work out new security guarantees for his country.

Should Russia invade Ukraine, it is to be expected that the West will not wage a war in defense of Ukraine. Washington, France and Germany have already threatened Russia with economic sanctions, hardly a deterrent for someone like Putin, who annexed part of Ukraine’s territory back in 2014.