Ukraine crises: Full military mobilization in Donetsk

Leaders of two breakaway territories in eastern Ukraine ordered full military mobilization on Saturday.

“I urge fellow countrymen who are in the reserve to come to the military commissariats. Today I have signed a decree on general mobilization,” self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic leader, Denis Pushilin, said in a video message.

Another separatist leader, Leonid Pasechnik, signed a similar decree for the Luhansk People’s Republic shortly afterwards.

Washington and other Western allies say the apparent flareup could form part of a Russian pretext to invade Ukraine.

Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian rebels reported increased shelling in the east over the last few days. On Saturday, Kyiv said one of their soldier was killed.

“There is simply no evidence to these assertions and it defies basic logic to believe the Ukrainians would choose this moment, with well over 150,000 [Russian] troops arrayed on its borders, to escalate a years long conflict, “US President Joe Biden said on Friday.

Russia has repeatedly denied that it has no plans to attack its neighbor.

On Friday, the breakaway regions started evacuating residents to Russia. They cite fears of an imminent attack by Ukrainian forces – an accusation Kyiv flatly denied.

Scholz: West can talk about ‘legitimate security interests’

Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz warned that “Europe once again faces a threat of a war, and risk has by no means been averted.”

At the same time, he hinted that the West was ready to compromise on other issues, as there was a difference between “untenable demands and legitimate security interests” raised by Russia. Specifically, he pointed to “transparency around weapons systems, risk mitigations mechanism and new approaches on arms control.”

The German leader said the West must not be “naïve” and reaffirmed Berlin’s commitment to countries deciding for themselves whether or not they will apply for NATO.

Russia rejected claims it was responsible for cyber-attack on Ukraine

On Saturday, Russia also denied allegations that it was responsible for cyber-attacks on dozens of official Ukrainian websites.

The US, UK, and Ukraine blamed Moscow of being behind the spate of distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks that briefly knocked out banking and government websites.

“We categorically reject these baseless statements of the administration and note that Russia has nothing to do with the mentioned events and in principle has never conducted and does not conduct any ‘malicious’ operations in cyberspace,” the Russian embassy in the US wrote on Twitter.

Harris to meet Zelenskyy in Munich

US Vice President Kamala Harris was expected to warn Moscow on Saturday that an invasion of Ukraine could likely lead to an even bigger NATO footprint on Russia’s doorsteps.

She would use her speech at the Munich Security Conference in Germany to push for “strength through unity,” a senior administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity told the Associated Press.

Harris was expected to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the conference.

Zelenskyy confirmed he would travel to Munich despite the escalating tensions.

Russia has amassed up to 190,000 troops on the borders with Ukraine, the US warned on Friday.

The Kremlin said that Russian leader Vladimir Putin and French President Emmanuel Macron would speak on the phone on Sunday. Next week, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is due to meet with his US counterpart Anthony Blinken.

Putin to attend launching drills

President Putin was set to supervise an exercise involving ballistic and cruise missile launches.

Putin was expected to monitor the practices from a situation control center at the defense ministry.

Russia’s defense ministry said the air force, southern military district units, as well as the northern and Black Sea fleets would be involved.

 

Arab Observer