Ukrainian security forces arrested alleged Russian operatives who were preparing a riot in the capital to destabilize the situation. On Monday 14 February the Duma will instead decide on the recognition of the republics of Donetsk and Luhansk as independent states.
Meanwhile, six Russian warships, which left in January from the ports of Severomorsk, on the Barents Sea, and Baltijsk, on the Baltic Sea, are sailing in the Mediterranean, in international waters off the coast of Sicily.
"The fleet does not violate the sovereignty of the riparian states, the Italian Defense Staff explains in a note, neither the NATO forces nor the Russian naval formation have put in place any escalatory behavior or will".
Moscow had already announced days ago that an unprecedented fleet would be concentrated in the Mediterranean. Therefore, six ships are arriving from the Baltic for landing operations: they can carry 60 tanks and 1.800 infantry on the beach, protecting them with cannons and rockets. If they reached the Black Sea, they could offer the Russians the ability to assault the Ukrainian coast, thus completing the encirclement on the coast as well. By doing so, the military grip would tighten all the borders of Kiev, except the western ones. There are four units of the Kremlin: the hunting Grigorivich and three 9 Burya-class frigates, equipped with long-range hypersonic missiles Calibr. While there are three i submarines Russian attackers employed, i Kilo, with extremely quiet motors capable of easily evading NATO sonar.
Il Pentagoninstead, he sent the Truman aircraft carrier to support the XNUMXth Fleet, escorted by a cruiser, four fighters and a Norwegian frigate. The completely autonomous US forces are capable of support attacks in Ukraine with seventy aircraft, with a simple order from the White House, without the support or advice of the Allies.
Washington then advertised on an institutional Twitter profile one of its nuclear submarines off Cyprus, theUSS Georgia with on-board 154 cruise missiles. Two massive exercises between Greece and Lebanon are therefore planned in the coming days. On the one hand there will be Russian ships on the other ships engaged in the NATO exercise "Neptune Strike". Another one will follow: the "Mission Clemenceau 22"French-led, always in the Eastern Mediterranean and with even three aircraft carriers: the Truman, the De Gaulle and the Italian Cavour. La Cavour represents one of the many flagships of our armed forces, capable of deploying ultra-modern fifth generation aircraft on its deck F35-B, in an inter-force group, consisting of aircraft of the Navy and the Air Force.
Russian operations on the border with Ukraine
Meanwhile, the tired Russians continue to amass troops on the border with Ukraine, according to the US Foreign Secretary, Victoria Nuland"We see the pressure increase. In Belarus there are now 30 soldiers from Moscow ".
Yesterday the Secretary of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, confirmed the increase in the deployment: "Russia is moving not only infantry, but also heavy artillery, missile batteries, planes, helicopters ".
UN Security Council
Also yesterday in New York there was a meeting of the UN Security Council at the request of the United States, where the president Joe Biden he said the summoning was needed to get the world to speak with one voice. The Russian ambassador, Vasily Nebenzia he tried to block the session, supported by China, but was rejected by 10 out of 15 representatives of the Council.
Nebenzia then accused the US of "spread hysteria around the world, after having installed a government of Russophobes, nationalists, radicals, true Nazis in Kiev ". The American representative, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, strongly countered: "Russia is making a pretext to attack Ukraine".
Today, however, Antony blinken e Sergey Lavrov, US and Russian foreign ministers will hear on the phone, while the British premier Boris Johnson will fly to Kiev to meet the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to then hear Vladimir Putin.
Meanwhile, the US and Europe have ready a list of Russian personalities close to Vladimir Putin to be hit with economic sanctions in the event of an invasion.