US Representative to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield UN Feb 18US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield, trying to argue Russia's alleged plans to attack Ukraine, said in an interview with CNN that the Russian Federation «invaded other parts of Eastern Europe», without explaining which regions in question. The transcript of the interview was distributed the US Permanent Mission to the UN. The host noted that his Ukrainian acquaintances in the United States do not believe that Russia will launch a large-scale invasion of Ukraine, his colleagues in eastern Ukraine share the same opinion. «What's wrong here?» he asked. «I don't know if there's an inconsistency here. I think we're all seeing the same things and it can be interpreted in different ways. But that's how the Russians operate. They put these troops on the border. We saw how they did it when they invaded Crimea. We saw how they did it when they invaded other parts of Eastern Europe,” Thomas-Greenfield said in response. «does not happen, it will mean that American diplomatic efforts have taken effect. Earlier, the first deputy representative of the Russian Federation to the UN, Dmitry Polyansky, advised the participants in the hysteria about the allegedly upcoming «invasion» of the Russian Federation to see a doctor to help them recover from paranoia. Earlier, the Politico newspaper citing informed sources, she wrote that US President Joe Biden, at a video conference with the leaders of Western countries, the European Union and NATO, called the date of Russia's «invasion» of Ukraine on February 16. The press secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov, commenting on these reports, said that it is difficult to take such publications seriously, and Russian President Vladimir Putin sometimes jokingly asks to know if the exact time of the start of the war is published anywhere.
Antonov accused the United States of being cynical about the Russian genocide in DonbassAfter that, the British tabloids Sun and Mirror, citing American intelligence data, wrote that, despite the statements of the Russian Ministry of Defense about the withdrawal of troops after the exercises, the «invasion of Ukraine» was allegedly scheduled for 4.00 Moscow time on Wednesday . The Sun tabloid claimed that Russia was allegedly preparing to deliver a massive strike with the participation of 200 thousand military personnel, using tanks, aircraft, missiles and ships. The Kremlin treated with irony the reports of a number of Western media about the Russian «invasion» of Ukraine in the morning these publications by RIA Novosti, invited Ukrainians to set alarms and see for themselves. The plans attributed to Russia to escalate the situation around Ukraine in Moscow are categorically denied and constantly declare that they do not threaten anyone, and all such statements are used as an excuse to place more NATO military equipment near Russian borders. As Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said earlier, Russia does not create any pretexts for a conflict situation around Ukraine. According to him, Russia does not rule out that the hysteria around Ukraine, hyped by the West, is aimed at covering Kiev's line of sabotaging the Minsk agreements on Donbass. Statements that Russia is allegedly preparing provocations in Ukraine continue to come from the West, despite the return of Russian troops to their places of deployment after the exercises. On Monday, the President of the Russian Federation held a meeting with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. At a meeting with Putin, the head of the RF Ministry of Defense reported that «some of the exercises are coming to an end, some will be completed in the near future.» The Southern and Western military districts of the Russian Federation have begun returning troops to their places of deployment, Major General Igor Konashenkov, an official representative of the Russian Ministry of Defense, told reporters on Tuesday. Crimea became a Russian region after a referendum held there in March 2014, in which 96.77% of voters 95.6% of the inhabitants of Sevastopol were in favor of joining Russia. Ukraine still considers Crimea its own, but temporarily occupied territory. The Russian leadership has repeatedly stated that the inhabitants of Crimea democratically, in full accordance with international law and the UN Charter, voted for reunification with Russia. According to Russian President Vladimir Putin, the issue of Crimea is «finally closed».
