The US Navy used special equipment to escape – In connection with the incident, the Russian Ministry of Defense called the military escort to the US Embassy in Moscow. After a phone call with Russian President, Biden says US is ready to resolve Ukraine crisis not only through diplomatic means.
On February 12, 2022, a U.S. Navy Virginia-class submarine was discovered by the Russian Ministry of Defense near the island of Urup, which is a Russian island and in particular the fourth largest island in the Kuril Islands after Iturup, Paramushir and Kunashir.
It has an area of 1,430 sq.km. and is uninhabited.
The US submarine entered Russian territorial waters in the Kuril Islands and special means were used against it, the Ministry of Defense announced.
“On February 12, 2022, at 10:40 Moscow time, a US Navy submarine of the Virginia type was discovered in the area of the planned exercise of the Pacific Fleet forces in the territorial waters of the Russian Federation near the island of Urup. the Kourilon Ridge”, the ministry stated.
The submarine crew was given a message in Russian and English via submarine communication:
“You are in the Russian territorial waters right now! Surface immediately!”
The crew of the submarine ignored the communication, the Russians claim.
“In accordance with the instructions for the protection of the state borders of the Russian Federation in the underwater environment, the crew of the frigate of the Pacific Fleet Marshal Shaposhnikov used appropriate means,” the message reads.
The American submarine “used a self-propelled target-splitting imitator on the radio positioning and acoustic control and left the Russian territorial waters at top speed”, the military department said in a statement.
A group of Pacific Fleet ships are continuing exercises and monitoring the underwater environment to prevent violations of Russia’s state borders.
Meanwhile, the US military attache was summoned to the Russian Ministry of Defense in connection with the violation of the territorial waters of the Russian Federation by the US submarine.
There was no immediate comment from the United States.
Russia’s defence minister spoke by phone with his U.S. counterpart on Saturday as the United States and other Western nations warned that war in Ukraine could ignite at any moment. U.S. President Joe Biden and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin started a call later in the day.
US troops stationed in Ukraine flee the country – Documents burned at US embassy in Kyiv
According to Bild, the US embassy in Kyiv began burning documents and destroying secret equipment.
“Staff will be reduced to an absolute minimum,” the newspaper said in a statement from a senior State Department official.
“Besides, the burning of important documents and the destruction of equipment, it seems, has already begun,” the newspaper writes.
At the same time, about 160 U.S. troops from the Florida National Guard, who were in Ukraine to help train Ukrainian forces, are fleeing the country as the threat of a Russian invasion grows, the Pentagon said Saturday.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the decision, first reported by Reuters, was deliberate and informed by the State Department’s decision to withdraw some staff from the US embassy in Kyiv.
“This relocation does not signal a change in our determination to support Ukraine’s armed forces, but it will provide flexibility in securing allies and preventing aggression,” Kirby said in a written statement.
The trainers will be relocated within Europe, he said, but it was not clear exactly where.
It was also not immediately clear what would happen to the small number of US special operations forces in the country, according to a US official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Reuters reported on Friday that the Pentagon would send an additional 3,000 troops to Poland as Russia conducted military exercises in Belarus and the Black Sea after concentrating its forces near Ukraine.
According to the latest information
The troops are advising and directing Ukrainian forces within the Joint Multinational Training Group, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said.
This move signals the intention to insure the unit against unintended collateral damage. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters on Friday that “if a Russian attack on Ukraine proceeds, it is likely to start with airstrikes and rocket attacks that could obviously kill civilians without regard to their nationality.”
No evacuation of Ukraine is planned for American citizens
The U.S. decision to order most of the embassy staff to leave Kyiv reflects the attention that diplomats could engage in any Russian military action, a senior State Department official said. The embassy will remain open for the necessary work. The United States will not organize evacuations for citizens still in Ukraine, according to the official.
While Ukrainian officials understand why the United States is taking such measures, not all of them agree with Washington’s assessment of the extent to which a possible conflict is imminent, the official said. Russia has repeatedly denied any plans to attack Ukraine.
Biden-Putin conversation: US President says US ready to resolve Ukraine crisis not only through diplomatic means
The Putin-Biden conversation lasted almost an hour – The planet is watching with bated breath.
The US president and his Russian counterpart spoke on the sidelines a day after US officials warned of the danger of Russia taking military action against Ukraine or attempting to provoke a conflict inside the country as early as next week.
It was the first direct exchange of views between the two leaders since December and was part of a lively series of phone calls between world leaders and top diplomats on Saturday aimed at de-escalating tensions.
Biden reportedly told Putin that the United States was ready to resolve the Ukrainian crisis not only through diplomatic means.
The US president “made it clear that if Russia launches a new invasion of Ukraine, the United States, along with its allies and partners, will respond decisively and impose a rapid and serious cost on Russia,” the statement said.
Biden also said that “further Russian invasion of Ukraine would cause widespread human suffering and weaken Russian power.”
“While the United States remains ready to engage in diplomacy in full coordination with our allies and partners, we are equally prepared for other scenarios,” the statement concluded.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned NATO not to intervene in the military conflict over Crimea on the Ukrainian side.
“If Ukraine joins NATO and demands the return of Crimea by military means, all European countries will automatically become parties to the conflict with Russia,” Putin told a news conference after meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron.
“The military potential of the NATO countries and Russia is incomparable, we understand that. But we are the leading nuclear power. There will be no winners. “Macron does not want this and I do not want this,” he said.
It is estimated that everything hangs on a thread and all possibilities are now open.
