Some airlines across the world have cancelled or diverted their flights to Ukraine amid the rising fears that Russia might invade Ukraine despite intensive talks over the weekend between the Kremlin and the West.
President of the United States had talked with the Russian President, Vladimir Putin on phone for almost an hour on Saturday. President Joe Biden said that invasion of Ukraine will lead to widespread human suffering and the West was committed to diplomacy to avert the crisis but at the same time, it was also equally prepared for other scenarios as well, as per the White House. It has not been suggested whether the call has decreased the threat of an imminent war in Europe.
The two leaders spoke after the National Security Advisor to the Biden administration, Jake Sullivan had warned that the US intelligence had shown a Russian invasion could begin within days now. Russia has denied its intent to invade but the nation has amassed more than 100,000 troops near the borders with Ukraine and has also sent troops to exercises in neighbouring Belarus. As per the officials of the United States, the buildup of firepower by Russia has reached a point where the invasion could take place on very short notice.
A Dutch airline called KLM has cancelled flights to Ukraine until further notice, on Saturday. The charter airline by Ukraine, SkyUp said that its flight from Madeira, Portugal, to Kyiv was diverted to the Moldovan capital after the plane’s Irish lesser had banned flights in the Ukrainian airspace.
The call between Putin and Biden was held after a phone call between Putin and Macron earlier in the day. This was a crucial moment for what is becoming the biggest security concern between Russia and the West ever since the Cold War has ended. As per the United States officials, they have mere days to prevent Ukraine from getting invaded and from enormous bloodshed in the nation.
The US and its NATO allies have made no plans of sending troops to Ukraine if it gets invaded by Russia. Any invasion and the sanctions that would follow would be trickled down to nations far beyond the former Soviet Republic and will affect energy supplies, global markets and the power balance that exists in Europe currently. As per the statement by the White House, the President of the US was very clear with his Russian counterpart that while the United States is prepared to engage in diplomacy in full coordination with its allies and it was equally prepared for all other scenarios as well.
Putin’s top foreign policy aide, Yuri Ushakov said that the tensions have been escalating for months currently, the situation has simply been brought to the point of absurdity. He said that the US President had mentioned possible sanctions that could be imposed on Russia if it decided to invade, but this issue was not the focus of the fairly long conversation with the President of Russia.
