‘We’re calling out Russia’s plans’: Biden says Moscow has no excuse for invading Ukraine but is ‘convinced’ Putin will attack within days

US president says Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine are responsible for a ‘major uptick’ in violence meant to give Russia a pretext to invade

President Joe Biden listens to reporters questions as he speaks about Ukraine in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Friday, Feb. 18, 2022, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) (AP)

US President Joe Biden on Friday blamed Russian-backed separatist forces for “a major uptick” in violence as part of a Russian plan to create a “pretext” for an invasion of Ukraine and said a series of Russian claims suggesting that Ukrainian forces were preparing a major offensive “defies logic”.

“There is simply no evidence for these assertions and it defies basic logic to believe the Ukrainians would choose this moment – with well over 150,000 troops arrayed on its borders – to escalate a years-long conflict,” Mr Biden said while speaking from the White House diplomatic reception room.

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The president also said Russian state media allegations of a “genocide” in the Donbas against Russian-speaking Ukrainians were “phoney”, “fabricated”, and “without evidence” and called the propaganda reports “consistent” with Russian plans for a false-flag operation while praising the “great judgement” and “restraint” shown by Ukrainian armed forces in refusing to let Russia “bait them into war”.

“We are calling out Russia’s plans loudly and repeatedly – not because we want conflict, but because we're doing everything in our power to remove any reason that Russia may give to justify invading Ukraine,” he said, though he added later that he is “convinced” Russian forces will launch an invasion “within days” beginning with an attack on the Ukrainian capital of Kiev.

Russian-backed separatist forces have in recent days made reports of attacks they claim are the work of Ukraine’s armed forces.

Separatist leaders in self-proclaimed “people’s republics” in eastern Ukraine also announced “evacuations” of civilians to Russia following a car bomb explosion which western leaders have characterised as the latest in a series of false-flag attacks designed to give Russia a pretext to invade.

But according to the open-source journalism website Bellingcat, the “evacuation” videos published on the messaging app Telegram by separatist leaders in Donetsk and Luhansk were recorded on Wednesday – two days prior to the announcement – which undermines claims that the so-called “evacuations” are genuine measures meant to keep Russian-speaking Ukrainian civilians from an offensive by Ukrainian forces.

Additionally, Ukrainian military intelligence services said on Friday that they had obtained information showing that Russian operatives could be laying explosives in social infrastructure facilities in the separatist regions.

“These measures are aimed at destabilising the situation in the temporarily occupied territories of our state and creating grounds for accusing Ukraine of terrorist acts,” the Ukrainian defence ministry said.