According to the White House, there could be a Russian invasion of Ukraine within the next week, possibly even before the end of the Winter Olympics. The US government urges Americans to leave the country now.
In an interview with CNN, Jake Sullivan said that the United States did not have definitive evidence that Russian President Vladimir Putin had ordered an invasion. He said, however, that the conditions were in place for a major military operation to commence "rapidly. “The risk is high enough and the threat is now immediate enough that prudence demands that it is the time to leave now,” Mr. Sullivan said.
“We are not saying that a decision has been taken by President Putin,” Mr. Sullivan said. “What we are saying is that we have a sufficient level of concern based on what we are seeing on the ground, and what our intelligence analysts have picked up, that we are sending this clear message.”
A visit by the British defence secretary to Moscow will also ease tensions over a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine. War games are being held by Russia in the neighboring country of Belarus, and the Russian government says it is not responsible for the strained relationship. The Russians say they have no intention of invading but want the West to keep Ukraine and other former Soviet bloc countries out of NATO.