Russia on Sunday rescinded earlier pledges to pull tens of thousands of its troops back from Ukraine’s northern border, a move that U.S. leaders said put Russia another step closer to launching what they said was the planned invasion of Ukraine.
By LORI HINNANT, JIM HEINTZ and ZEKE MILLER
In Kyiv, life outwardly continued as usual for many on a mild winter Sunday, with brunches and church services, ahead of what U.S. President Joe Biden said late last week was an already decided-upon Russian attack. A U.S. official said Sunday that Biden’s assertion that Putin has made the decision to roll Russian forces into Ukraine was based on intelligence that Russian front-line commanders have been given orders to begin final preparations for an attack. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the sensitive intelligence.
The announcement that Russia was reversing its pledge to withdraw its forces from Belarus came after two days of sustained shelling along a contact line between Ukraine’s soldiers and Russian-allied separatists in eastern Ukraine, an area that Ukraine and the West worry could be the flashpoint in igniting conflict.
Zelenskyy on Sunday appealed on Twitter for a cease-fire. Russia has denied plans to invade, but the Kremlin did not respond to Zelenskyy’s offer Saturday to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin. “Up to the last minute, there is still an option for him to pull back,” Blinken told NBC’s Meet the Press.
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