KYIV, Ukraine xe2x80x94 (AP) xe2x80x94 Fears of a new war in Europe resurged Thursday as U.S. President Joe Biden warned that Russia could invade Ukraine within days, and violence spiked in a long-running standoff in eastern Ukraine that some worried could provide the spark for wider conflict.

World dignitaries raced for solutions, but suspicions between East and West only seemed to grow, as NATO allies rejected Russian assertions it was pulling back troops from exercises that had fueled fears of an attack. Russia is believed to have built up some 150,000 military forces around Ukraine’s borders.

Concerns escalated in the West over what exactly Russia is doing with those troops, which included an estimated 60% of Russia’s overall ground forces. The Kremlin insists it has no plans to invade, but it has long considered Ukraine part of its sphere of influence and NATO’s eastward expansion an existential threat.

The U.S. government issued some of its starkest, most detailed warnings yet about what could happen next.

Speaking at the U.N. Security Council, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken revealed some conclusions of U.S. intelligence in a strategy that the U.S. and Britain have hoped will expose and pre-empt any invasion planning. The U.S. has declined to reveal much of the evidence underlying its claims.

He told the diplomats that a sudden, seemingly violent event staged by Russia to justify invasion would kick it off. Blinken mentioned a xe2x80x9cso-called terrorist bombingxe2x80x9d inside Russia, a staged drone strike, xe2x80x9ca fake, even a real attack xe2x80xa6 using chemical weapons.xe2x80x9d

The assault would open with cyberattacks, along with missiles and bombs across Ukraine, he said. Painting the U.S. picture further, Blinken described the entry of Russian troops, advancing on Kyiv, a city of nearly 3 million, and other key targets.

U.S. intelligence indicated Russia also would target xe2x80x9cspecific groupsxe2x80x9d of Ukrainians, Blinken said, again without giving details.

In an implicit nod to Secretary of State Colin Powell’s appearance before the Security Council in 2003, when he cited unsubstantiated and false U.S. intelligence to justify the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Blinken added: xe2x80x9cLet me be clear. I am here today not to start a war, but to prevent one.xe2x80x9d

Bidenxe2x80x99s own comments on the Russian threat were unusually dire.

Speaking at the White House, he said Washington saw no signs of a promised Russian withdrawal, and said the invasion threat remains xe2x80x9cvery highxe2x80x9d because Russia has moved more troops toward the border with Ukraine instead of pulling them back.

“Every indication we have is they’re prepared to go into Ukraine, attack Ukraine,” Biden told reporters. He said the U.S. has “reason to believe” that Russia is “engaged in a false flag operation to have an excuse to go in,” but did not provide details.

The White House said Biden planned to speak by phone Friday with trans-Atlantic leaders about Russiaxe2x80x99s military buildup and continued efforts at deterrence and diplomacy.

U.S. and European officials were on high alert for any Russian attempts to create a pretext for invasion, according to a Western official familiar with intelligence findings. Ukrainian government officials shared intelligence with allies that suggested the Russians might try to shell the Luhansk area in the disputed Donbas region on Friday morning as part of an effort to create a false reason to take military action, according to the official who was not authorized to comment publicly.

Renewed fear of an invasion put global financial markets on edge. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell nearly 600 points, or 1.7%. More than 85% of the stocks in the benchmark S&P 500 were in the red.

Even without an attack, the sustained Russian pressure on Ukraine has further hobbled its shaky economy and left an entire nation under constant strain. Eastern Ukraine already has been the site of fighting since 2014 that has killed 14,000, and tensions soared again Thursday.

Separatist authorities in the Luhansk region reported an increase in Ukrainian government shelling along the tense line of contact. Separatist official Rodion Miroshnik said rebel forces returned fire.

Ukraine disputed the claim, saying separatists had shelled its forces but they didnxe2x80x99t fire back. The Ukrainian military command said shells hit a kindergarten in Stanytsia Luhanska, wounding two teachers, and cut power to half the town.

The head of the monitoring mission for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Yasar Halit Cevik, said it reported 500 explosions along the contact line from Wednesday evening to Thursday. Cevik told the Security Council the tensions then appeared to ease, with about 30 blasts reported.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy tweeted that the kindergarten shelling xe2x80x9cby pro-Russian forces is a big provocation.xe2x80x9d

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov countered with the same: xe2x80x9dWe have repeatedly warned that the excessive concentration of Ukrainian armed forces in the immediate vicinity of the line of demarcation, coupled with possible provocations, could pose a terrible danger.xe2x80x9d

A 2015 deal brokered by France and Germany helped end the worst of the fighting, but regular skirmishes have continued and a political settlement has stalled.

Western powers scrambled to avert, or prepare for, eventual invasion.

NATO’s defense ministers discussed ways to bolster defenses in Eastern Europe, while EU leaders huddled over how to punish Russia if it invades. Blinken and Vice President Kamala Harris are among political, military and diplomatic leaders heading to the annual security conference in Munich that will see urgent consultations on the crisis.

China, a key Russian geopolitical ally, accused Washington of xe2x80x9cplaying up and sensationalizing the crisis and escalating tensions.xe2x80x9d Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said the U.S. should xe2x80x9ctake seriously and address Russiaxe2x80x99s legitimate and reasonable concerns on security assurance.xe2x80x9d

At NATO headquarters in Brussels, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin questioned the Russian troop pullout claims.

xe2x80x9cWexe2x80x99ve seen some of those troops inch closer to that border. We see them fly in more combat and support aircraft,xe2x80x9d he said. xe2x80x9cWe see them sharpen their readiness in the Black Sea. We even see them stocking up their blood supplies. You donxe2x80x99t do these sort of things for no reason, and you certainly donxe2x80x99t do them if youxe2x80x99re getting ready to pack up and go home.xe2x80x9d

British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said the West has seen “an increase of troops over the last 48 hours, up to 7,000.” That squared with what a U.S. administration official said a day earlier.

Maxar Technologies, a commercial satellite imagery company monitoring the Russian buildup, reported continued heightened military activity near Ukraine. It noted a new pontoon bridge and a new field hospital in Belarus.

Russia says the pullout, announced earlier this week, will take time. Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj.-Gen. Igor Konashenkov said Russian tank and infantry units holding drills in the Kursk and Bryansk regions neighboring Ukraine were returning to their bases in the Nizhny Novgorod region. He said some already were back after a 700-kilometer (435-mile) journey.

Troops on maneuvers in Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, have moved back to Russia’s North Caucasus, he said, and Russian troops in Belarus will return to their garrisons after war games end Sunday. Konashenkov didn’t mention how many were deployed and didn’t say how many returned.

Russia held out a new offer of diplomacy Thursday, handing the U.S. a response to offers to engage in talks on limiting missile deployments in Europe, restrictions on military drills and other confidence-building measures.

The response, released by the Foreign Ministry, deplored the Westxe2x80x99s refusal to meet the main Russian security and demands and reaffirmed that Moscow could take unspecified xe2x80x9cmilitary-technical measuresxe2x80x9d if the U.S. and its allies continue to stonewall its concerns.

At the same time, it said Russia was ready to discuss limits on missile deployments, restrictions on patrol flights by strategic bombers and other confidence-building steps.

Meanwhile, Russia ordered the deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, Bart Gorman, to leave the country, in what the State Department called an xe2x80x9cunprovokedxe2x80x9d move. Russia said it was in response to the expulsion of a Russian diplomat. It appeared more linked to an ongoing U.S.-Russia battle over diplomatic staffing in Washington and Moscow than to Ukraine.

___

Isachenkov reported from Moscow, Superville from Washington and Cook from Brussels. Matthew Lee in Munich, Angela Charlton in Paris, Jill Lawless in London, Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations, Frank Jordans in Berlin, and Aamer Madhani, Ellen Knickmeyer, Colleen Long and Zeke Miller in Washington contributed to this report.

___

More AP coverage of the Ukraine crisis: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

The head of MI5 today lays bare the terrifying threat to Britain from hostile nations.

Ken McCallum says ‘we are in a struggle here’ for our very way of life.

In an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail, he warns Russia and China are waging an all-encompassing ‘contest’ for international supremacy, seekingxc2xa0to interfere in Parliament, shape public thought and steal from businesses, universities and ordinary Britons.

‘It’s important not to frame this as a Cold War II, but at the same time to be clear-eyed that we are in a struggle here,’ he says.xc2xa0

‘We do need to stand up for our values, for our system, for the benefits of the democratic way of life that we, and our allies, hold dear.’

However, in his interview today, the Director General also warns that MI5 is being hamstrung by outdated laws which make it impossible to prosecute foreign spies.xc2xa0

n
• n
• n
• n

n

• n

  Copy link to paste in your message

  n

n

• n

MI5 director general Ken McCallum (pictured) warns Russia and China are waging an all-encompassing ‘contest’ for international supremacy, seeking to interfere in Parliament

‘We are in effect operating with one hand behind our back on state threats,’ he admits.

His warning comes against the backdrop of the crisis in Ukraine, with British and western officials apparently convinced that President Putin has made up his mind to invade in a move that threatens to destabilise Nato’s eastern flank.

Mr McCallum also warns that Russia and China are both desperate to gain a foothold in the House of Commons by targeting MPs and their advisers.

He says: ‘It’s always been the case that people close to the seat of power will be subject to attempted influence. The assertiveness of some of that influencing might be on the rise.’

Delivering a chilling assessment of the threats facing Britain and its Nato allies, Mr McCallum says:

• The threat from hostile states now rivals that from terrorism in terms of the level of potential danger it presents to the UK.
• MPs have passed on intelligence about more suspected hostile state approaches since Chinese spy Christine Lee was outed by MI5 last month.
• The crisis in Ukraine could see Russian espionage, cyber strikes and interference being brought to bear in ‘sharp form’ in the UK.
• Ordinary Britons are being targeted on a ‘mass scale’ by our adversaries using professional networking sites such as LinkedIn.

Mr McCallum said it was getting harder for MI5 to decide whether to prioritise home-grown terrorists or foreign spies, such was the threat of interference, cyber-attacks and espionage by agents of powerful nations including Russia and China.

He said that the crisis in Ukraine also threatened to unleash a wave of cyber-attacks from Russia which could strike UK organisations, paralysing businesses or even shut down an NHS hospital.xc2xa0

Mr McCallum said: ‘Clearly what’s happening in Russia and Ukraine is a cause for very grave concern. What does matter in my organisation’s role is how these threats manifest back here in the UK.

n
• n
• n
• n

n

• n

  Copy link to paste in your message

  n

n

• n

It comes against the backdrop of the Ukraine crisis, with western officials apparently convinced that President Putin (pictured with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko) has made up his mind to invade

‘We are very alive to the type of threats that could manifest in a sharper form in the coming days or weeks and of course cyber security is naturally strongly on that list.’

Mr McCallum believes Britain must be prepared to fight off ‘ongoing attempts by a range of other nations to influence our economy, our democracy, our society’.

But he described his frustration that outdated laws made it impossible to lock up foreign spies.

Unlike the US, which has a law against ‘unregistered foreign agents’ dating from 1938, Britain has to rely on the Official Secrets Act.xc2xa0

This means that Government officials can be prosecuted for leaking information but it allows the spies themselves to go free.

In May, Boris Johnson pledged to introduce a Bill to counter hostile states, making it a criminal offence if any individuals working on behalf of foreign governments do not register their presence here.xc2xa0

However, it remains to be seen whether the new law will be enough to stop spies such as Christine Lee, who also had British citizenship, and it is not clear how quickly it can be brought in.

Mr McCallum said the Official Secrets Act was not fit for purpose: ‘Laws that had stood the test of time over theft of state secrets are insufficient to deal with the more nuanced interconnected world in which we all live.

‘We don’t have in my view sufficient legal powers to deal with some of what we are now seeing.xc2xa0

‘With state threats we seek to do everything we can to make the UK resilient but in many cases we don’t have the ability to bring prosecutions in the criminal courts, for example it is not presently a criminal offence to be a covert agent of a foreign power.

‘It is frustrating. At the moment we are in effect operating with one hand behind our back on state threats. We think we could do a better job for our nation if some of those gaps were closed.’

The spy chief said the peril from hostile states now rivalled domestic terrorism. He said: ‘Every Monday morning, I convene a senior team who focus on the threats that our nation is facing.

‘Typically over the past two decades most times that conversation has been dominated by terrorist threats, specifically from Al Qaeda, so-called Islamic State and increasingly sadly threats from extreme Right-wing terrorism and also still residual terrorist threats in Northern Ireland.

‘But over the past few years we have sadly seen a big resurgence in various threats, espionage and interference to the UK from a number of powerful nations.’

n
• n
• n
• n

n

• n

  Copy link to paste in your message

  n

n

• n

He also said MPs have passed on intelligence about more suspected hostile state approaches since Chinese spy Christine Lee (pictured with Xi Jinping) was outed by MI5 last month

Mr McCallum warned there were ‘ongoing attempts’ by a range of nations to influence ‘our economy, our democracy, our society’, warning: ‘These other components of UK life xe2x80x93 the public sector, the academic sector and so forth xe2x80x93 are still very much central to these ongoing waves of shaping activity, and need to be aware of that and make conscious smart choices.

‘We need to be clear that there is in effect a contest of different worlds now taking place, sometimes visibly, sometimes invisibly, between the liberal democrat model West and the more authoritarian model nations.

‘What we are dealing with won’t, I don’t think, become a confrontation of the sort our grandparents would recognise. [And] the UK does not need to cut itself off from the world.

‘But we do need to be clear that standing up for our values and our way of life matters and sometimes that involves tough choices.’

A month on from MI5’s unprecedented warning that Chinese spy Lee had infiltrated Parliament to target the highest levels of Government, Mr McCallum said MPs should expect a lot more foreign ‘interference alerts’ in future.

He revealed that other MPs had since flagged concerns about suspect approaches. ‘That was a very helpful thing,’ he said.

Mr McCallum said both Russia and China were attempting to access advisers who have the Prime Minister’s ear.

‘It will always be the case that those that are seeking to exert influence on our political life will want to influence those advisers in order that their point of view can be heard. Those advisers themselves are typically very aware of these risks.’

He also described the ‘online cultivation’ of ordinary Britons at ‘mass scale’ by our adversaries using professional networking sites such as LinkedIn and social media.

British citizens, experts, business people and academics were being approached by people ‘making some very complimentary remarks about some seminar they have given or a paper they have written or inviting them to a conference’.

‘It’s something we see happening thousands and thousands of times and not too many of those people have to respond positively to make it worth the while of those who are trying to do this type of online cultivation, and so that remains a real danger.’xc2xa0

nnn

nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn

nnn

nnnnnnnnnnn

Signed in as Michael_Novakhov

Send this story to NewsBlur

Shared stories are on their way…