USA: Russian invasion of Ukraine "remains imminent" - Psaki

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White House press secretary Jen Psaki discussed the Ukraine crisis during a briefing in Washington DC on Tuesday.

Reporter: Ukraine’s government is telling its people that a Russian invasion is not imminent. Their Defence Minister said ‘don’t worry, sleep well, no need to have your bags packed.’ Does the US agree with that assessment, that an invasion is not imminent?

Psaki: Well, no one can get into the mind of President Putin or Russian leadership, we all know that is the case. What we have seen is a range of preparations including a hundred thousand troops at the border, bellicose rhetoric and actions, as we’ve talked about in here, including false flag operations, to try to spread misinformation throughout the region and even the world, setting up the predicate for an invasion. So while of course our preferred path is diplomacy and we can’t predict where the mind of President Putin is, we’ve certainly seen aggressive actions and preparations increasing at the border.
Reporter: Last week was when the administration began to ratchet up warnings that an invasion could be imminent, could happen at any time. This week, can you say how if at all the president’s view has changed about the risk. Is it the same? Is it getting worse?

Psaki: I think when we said it was imminent, it remains imminent. But again we can’t make a prediction of what decision President Putin will make. We’re still engaged in diplomatic discussions and negotiations.

Reporter: So no element of the last week has changed the president’s view one way or the other on that?

Psaki: Well, imminent has a pretty intense meaning, doesn’t it?

Reporter: I agree, and it’s still the belief that..

Psaki: Correct.

Reporter: The president said last night that there is total unanimity with all of the European leaders on Russia. But how can he say that when Germany, for example, has been so outspoken against even providing arms to Ukraine?

Psaki: Well, I think what the president’s speaking to is a united agreement among our NATO partners including Germany about the fact that there will be severe consequences, severe economic consequences should they invade. As our national security adviser and our secretary of state have said, that doesn’t happen, that unity doesn’t happen on its own. It’s required a lot of work. It also means that actions may not be identical. But we will be unified and they will be strong and severe. I’ll also note that the Germans, and we expect the chancellor to come here in February, and hopefully we’ll have more specifics on that soon, has also been vocal about this and about the severity of a response that that would take place should Russia invade.

Reporter: To the best of your knowledge right now, it’s the president’s intention to work exclusively via NATO to not send any troops unilaterally in any form?

Psaki: Again we’re working through NATO to plus up support in our eastern flank countries. That is what NATO is there for, and we are committed to the sanctity of that alliance. Just to be clear, there is no intention or interest or desire by the president to send troops to Ukraine. NATO is a forum to support our eastern flank partners and countries and that’s what the focus has been on.

Reporter: There’s a BuzzFeed report now suggesting that Ukraine’s government is upset the US pulled citizens out of Ukraine before many other countries did. And this report says that a source close to the Ukrainian president thinks those Americans are safer in Kiev than in Los Angeles, what do you make of that?

Psaki: Well, we’re always going to make decisions that are in the security interests of people who are serving as diplomats around the world, and we have assessments that are made by the State Department. Hence the decision and the announcement made over the last couple of days and the fact that we put in a Level 4 advisory back in October conveying very clearly to Americans they should leave Ukraine.

Reporter: How is the US currently assessing the risk of a Russian cyber attack on the US homeland? And what is it doing to prepare for it?

Psaki: I don’t have any intelligence that I’m going to read out from here as I don’t think you would certainly expect. Obviously we’re focused right now on Russia’s intentions as it relates to military invasion on the ground and other steps they’ve taken, pushing propaganda, a false flag, false flag operations that we’ve spoken about quite vocally from here. Broadly we are always preparing for any any action related to cyber or any other activity that any country could take. But I don’t have a prediction about that at this point in time, nor is that something that our national security team has assessed that I’m aware of.

#US #Ukraine #Russia

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