Washington Govt. accuses Moscow of conspiring to take over Ukraine government
New Delhi: The US has alleged that Russian intelligence is recruiting current and former Ukrainian government officials to take over the government in Kyiv and cooperate with a Russian occupying force.
The US Treasury on Thursday imposed sanctions on two Ukrainian members of parliament and two former officials it said were involved in the alleged conspiracy, which involved discrediting the current government of the president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
“Russia has directed its intelligence services to recruit current and former Ukrainian government officials to prepare to take over the government of Ukraine and to control Ukraine’s critical infrastructure with an occupying Russian force,” the Treasury statement accompanying the sanctions said.
The claims suggest US intelligence fears Russia is preparing a full-scale invasion and not the “minor incursion” that Joe Biden referred to as a possibility in remarks on Wednesday that triggered alarm in Kyiv.
Online researchers have identified Russian troops and military vehicles within just ten miles of Ukraine’s borders, increasing the risk that Vladimir Putin could launch a military offensive on short notice.
Local media showed Russian troops arrived in the town of Yelsk in Belarus and at other points near the border with Ukraine as part of joint military exercises set to begin next month. Russian forces there include rocket artillery, anti-air systems, and possibly elite units such as speznaz.
An investigation by the Conflict Intelligence Team and Radio Svoboda raised questions of whether the deployments were just an exercise, as some family members said the soldiers were deployed for months.
In his earlier remarks Biden seemed to say that if Russia invaded just a small part of Ukraine, the Nato alliance would be divided on how to respond. Speaking on Thursday, the US president sought to clarify those comments.
“If any assembled Russian units move across the Ukrainian border, that is an invasion,” he said. “Let there be no doubt if Putin makes this choice, Russia will pay a heavy price.”
Biden added that the US and its allies would also have to be ready to respond if Russia employed “measures other than overt military action to carry out aggression” against Ukraine.
The president was speaking soon after Zelenskiy complained in a tweet: “We want to remind the great powers that there are no minor incursions and small nations. Just as there are no minor casualties and little grief from the loss of loved ones.”
The US has threatened unprecedented sanctions against Russia if it goes ahead with an invasion, though there are disagreements with European allies, as Biden admitted on Wednesday, on how extensive the punitive measures should be. European capitals have resisted the suggestion that Russia should be cut off from the international electronic payment system, Swift.
(_Vinayak)
