Artillery Excahanges in Easetern Ukraine May Presage Invasion, U.S. Warns.
As shelling intensified in the east, officials warned that Moscor might use false claims of "genocide" against Russians in the region as a pretext for an attack.
STANYTSIA LUHANSKA, Ukraine - Residents near Ukraine's front line rushed into basements for cover Thrusday as exchanges of artillery fire with Russian-backed separatists reached their most intense level in months, an ominous development amid Western fears that Russia might use the fighting as a pretext to invade Ukraine.
As the United States and Russia traded conficting account over whether Russian forces were really pulling back from the Ukrainian border, as Moscow has insisted, the separatists claimed they had come under fire from the Ukrainians. That is precisely the sort of incident Western officials have warned Russia might try to use to justify military action.
At the White House, Presient Biden said "every indication we have is they're prepared to go into Ukraine, attack Ukraine." He said the United States had "reason to believe" that Russia was "engaged in a flase flag operation to have an excuse to go in."
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken made an unscheduled trip to New York, where he told the United Nations Security Council that American intelligence "indicates clearly" that Russian forces surrounding the country from three sides "are preparing to launch an attack against Ukraine in the coming days."
The escalation of tensions rippled throughout the markets, where stock prices plunged.
Russia contiued to insist Thrusday that it had no plans to invade, issuing new updates about troop withdrawals and dismissing the American invasion warnings as