The latest on Ukraine and Russia tensions

The US State Department on Monday ordered the departure of family members of US government employees from the US Embassy in Belarus and warned American citizens not travel to the country amid an “unusual and concerning Russian military buildup along Belarus’ border with Ukraine.”

Last week, the State Department “authorized the voluntary departure of U.S. direct hire employees (USDH) and ordered the departure of eligible family members (EFM) from Embassy Kyiv due to the continued threat of Russian military action,” the alert said.

The diplomatic presence in Belarus is a mere handful of diplomats due to restrictions imposed by the government of Alexander Lukashenko. Last August, the Belarusian government told the US embassy in Minsk to reduce the number of staff to 5 people, and in October it forced the Embassy to close its Public Diplomacy and USAID offices and lay off more than 20 Belarusian staff effective November 20.

The ordered departure for family members comes the same day that US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the US had seen evidence that Russia intends to mass more than 30,000 troops near the Belarus-Ukraine border, and that Moscow had “moved nearly 5,000 troops into Belarus, with short-range ballistic missiles, special forces, and anti-aircraft batteries.”

Russia has responded in writing to the United States’ written response to Moscow, a senior State Department official said.

The response from Moscow comes ahead of a planned phone conversation between Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Tuesday.

The Washington Post first reported the development.

The Ukrainian interior ministry says the arrested leader of a group suspected of planning a violent protest in Kyiv has “strong links” to Russian-backed rebels in the breakaway east of the country.

Speaking to CNN, Ukraine’s First Deputy Interior Minister, Eugene Yenin, said the man had been a prominent fighter in the Vostok Battalion of rebels, formed to battle government forces in 2014.

Yenin told CNN three people – all Ukrainian citizens – had so far been arrested as part of what he described as a “plot to destabilize the country”.

He said that a search for evidence was now underway, as well as interrogations, to establish a firm Russian link to the plot. But he admitted that process may be hard as “President Putin doesn’t leave a business card,” he said.  

As well as the planned protest in Kyiv, outside the presidential office, Yenin told CNN similar protests had been planned in cities across the country, especially near Russian border areas.

Yenin told CNN that Russian-backed groups frequently carry out “subversive acts” in Ukraine, including criminal activity, and provoking public disorder.

As US Senate negotiators move closer on a deal on a bipartisan sanctions package, the Biden administration is making additional trips to Capitol Hill to detail the situation in Ukraine. 

The Senate Armed Services Committee and Senate Foreign Relations Committee will have classified briefings on Wednesday, according to a person familiar with the matter — a day before the full House and Senate are also briefed on the matter.

More on the sanctions package: Sens. Bob Menendez and Jim Risch, the two top senators on the Foreign Relations Committee, said Sunday they are confident they will get a bipartisan deal on Russian sanctions as the Senate comes back from recess this week.

On the package, Menendez, who chairs the committee, said some sanctions could happen upfront and others would go into effect if Russia were to invade Ukraine.

Risch, a Republican from Idaho, said a major sticking point in negotiations for the economic sanctions package continues to be the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, an undersea pipeline set to deliver gas from Russia to Germany.

CNN’s Daniella Diaz contributed reporting to this post.

Watch Rep. Colin Allred (D-TX) share with CNN’s John King what Congress is doing to discourage Russia from invading Ukraine:

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05:54 - Source: cnn

Ukraine has received a fifth weapons supply shipment from the United States, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said in a tweet on Monday.

“The 5th bird in Kyiv! Another 84 tons of ammunition of various calibers! In the next few days we are waiting for the next cargo of defense weaponry from our friends from the USA,” Reznikov wrote.  

The first shipment of security assistance from the US had arrived in Ukraine on January 21.

US State Department spokesperson Ned Price speaks during a briefing at the State Department in Washington, DC, on January 31.

The State Department said Monday that they estimate there are 6,600 private US citizens residing in Ukraine as of October 2021.

The department is continually reaching out to urge the 6,600 to leave Ukraine, according to Price, including “in recent hours.”

Price also said that before Russia’s military buildup began, the US Embassy in Kyiv estimated there could be 16,000 US tourists or visitors in Ukraine, but that given the State Department warnings against traveling to Ukraine that began that month, the State Department’s “best assessment is that that number is much, much lower now.”

Additional context: Earlier this month, the State Department announced it would reduce staff levels at the US Embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine, beginning with the departure of nonessential staff and family members.

The Pentagon continues to see “even over the course of the weekend” additional Russian troops moving “in again around Belarus and around the border with Ukraine,” Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said during a news briefing at the Pentagon on Monday.

Russia is also increasing its “naval activity in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic,” Kirby said, which the Pentagon is “watching… pretty closely.”

Both the added ground troops in Belarus and near the Ukrainian border as well as the Russian fleet vessels at sea are creating “options available to Mr. Putin,” Kirby said.

Putin “continues to create more options for himself from a military perspective,” Kirby said. “Again we want to see him exercise a diplomatic option, which oh by the way is also still open to him.”

The US also continues to send “security assistance material” to Ukrainian armed forces with a recent shipment that arrived Friday, Kirby said.

“We’ll have more in the coming days, and it’s why we have trainers on the ground to help improve the competence and the confidence of Ukrainian armed forces,” Kirby said.

Here’s a look at Russian military presence near the Ukrainian border:

US President Joe Biden speaks in the Oval Office of the White House on January 31 in Washington, DC.

President Biden told reporters Monday the US remains “ready no matter what happens,” as Russia continues to ramp up aggression towards Ukraine.

In remarks earlier Monday, UN Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield warned that Russia’s actions “not only threatens Ukraine, it also threatens Europe,” calling it “crucial” that the UN security Council “address the risk that their aggressive and destabilizing behavior poses across the globe.”

“We continue to urge diplomacy as the best way forward,” Biden told reporters Monday, “But, with Russia continuing its build up around Ukraine, we are ready no matter what happens.”

French President Emmanuel Macron and Russian President Vladimir Putin welcomed “the positive progress” made in talks about the Ukraine situation within the Normandy format in a phone call Monday, according to a readout of the call from the Elysee Palace.  

The so-called Normandy Format is a four-way conversation between representatives from Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France that has been trying to broker peace in eastern Ukraine since 2014.

Monday’s call was part of the “same logic of de-escalation” the French readout said, and the Russian and French presidents wish “to continue the dialogue in this framework.” 

This is Macron’s second call with Putin since Friday. He also spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday.  

The Elysee Palace confirmed Monday that President Macron has a long-standing invitation from President Putin to visit Russia, but added that while such a visit “is not excluded, there is no date fixed currently.”  

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian will visit Ukraine on Feb. 7 and 8, a spokesperson for the French foreign ministry told CNN Monday.  

Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to speak with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Tuesday, a State Department spokesperson confirmed.

“We expect the Secretary will have an opportunity to speak by phone with Foreign Minister Lavrov tomorrow morning,” the spokesperson said Monday.

The phone call will be the first conversation between the two top diplomats since the US submitted its written response to Russia last Wednesday. Blinken had said he expected to speak with Lavrov once those responses were received by Moscow and said Thursday he expected his counterpart to convey Russian President Vladimir Putin’s thoughts.

“And we’ll look forward to his response, which I’m sure will be conveyed through Foreign Minister Lavrov and others in the days ahead. That’s what matters most,” he continued.

British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss announced in Parliament Monday that the government’s “most far-reaching” sanctions regime against Russia will be in place by Feb. 10. 

US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield addresses the United Nations Security Council before a vote on January 31.

US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said that the US did not hear an explanation for Russia’s military buildup along Ukraine’s borders at the UN meeting today, but said that Russia walks away having heard united support for Ukraine. 

The Biden administration called for this meeting to allow the Russians to explain their actions she said. 

But countries were clear in expressing support for “the importance of countries having the ability to feel comfortable within their own borders,” Thomas-Greenfield said.  

“Russia heard clearly a united position from the vast majority of the council and I hope that that will lead to a diplomatic solution,” she said.

Ukraine's United Nations Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya addresses the UN Security Council at the UN headquarters on January 31.

Ukrainian Ambassador to the UN Sergiy Kyslytsya said Monday there are around 130,000 Russian military members threatening the country, with 112,000 troops on the ground around Ukraine’s border and in Crimea, as well as an additional 18,000 Russian maritime and aviation military personnel.

“The question is — why all these Russian forces are there. We have asked this question on different fora, along with sending our own clear messages,” Kyslytsya said. “This is direct evidence of Russia’s unwillingness to deescalate and prepare to justify its possible further aggression.”

Kyslytsya said the country supports keeping diplomatic channels open, but maintained the country is ready to defend itself. The Ukrainian ambassador also thanked US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield for requesting Monday’s meeting on Ukraine.

Kyslytsya addressed Russian Ambassador to the UN Vassily Nebenzia’s earlier comments denying a threat or a planned invasion, but said there was no need for Nebenzia to “interpret the words of Ukrainian officials in a foreign language,” nor was there a need for “the position of [his] country [to be] delivered by a foreign ambassador in the Russian language.”

“It is important that Ukraine’s vote is heard today in the Security Council and is not lost in translation,” Kyslytsya said. “My leadership speaks his language, has its own ambassadors, and spokespersons.”

Russian Ambassador to the UN Vassily Nebenzia was not present for Kyslytsya’s remarks. Nebenzia excused himself from Monday’s UNSC meeting — just before Kyslytsya was set to begin speaking — to attend a meeting with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Russia is expected to take on the presidency of the UNSC beginning Tuesday.

“I really, just before our presidency of the Security Council have to meet with the Secretary General so I’m going to have to leave. And, so I can’t change this situation because of the SG’s timetable so I’m going to have to leave, I do apologize,” the Russian Ambassador said in translated remarks before packing up his things.

Russia intends to amass tens of thousands of troops near the Belarus-Ukraine border by early February, US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said Monday.

Speaking at a UN Security Council meeting, Thomas-Greenfield said the US has “seen evidence that Russia intends to expand that presence to more than 30,000 troops near the Belarus-Ukraine border, less than two hours north of Kyiv, by early February.”

“Russia has also moved nearly 5,000 troops into Belarus, with short-range ballistic missiles, special forces, and anti-aircraft batteries,” she said. 

A US official said that these figures come from declassified US intelligence. US officials have repeatedly warned that Moscow could use Belarus to mount an invasion into neighboring Ukraine. 

The Belarusian Ambassador to the UN claimed it was in support of dialogue, but reiterated that the country would act in defense of its ally Russia if it were attacked. He also said that Russia and Belarus would be holding joint military activities, which he said “are always purely defensive in nature, and they pose no threat either for our European partners, or our neighboring countries.”

President Biden is close to publicly naming his ambassador to Ukraine, but his administration is still waiting on formal approval from the Ukrainian government, CNN has learned.

Biden has selected Bridget Brink, the current US ambassador to Slovakia, but hasn’t officially nominated her yet because the Ukrainian government hasn’t signed off, according to a source familiar.

Getting approval from the foreign government is part of the standard process in selecting ambassadors and can usually take anywhere from days to weeks. A source close to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told CNN on Monday that the Ukrainian government is still vetting Brink.

Secretary Antony Blinken said recently the US ambassador to Ukraine would be announced “very shortly,” adding, “I can tell you that when an ambassador is nominated, that person will have the full confidence of the President of the United States, that person will be someone that is well known to me and with whom I have a close relationship, and that person will have very demonstrable expertise and knowledge in this region.”

More background: Currently the chargé d’affaires, Kristina Kvien, remains at the embassy in Ukraine. The US has not had a permanent ambassador in the country since Marie Yovanovitch, who was pushed out of the position after she said she was effectively “kneecapped” by Trump administration.

The State Department last week ordered that families of diplomats at the US Embassy in Kyiv leave the country amid heightened tensions with Russia, and allowed non-essential staff to depart voluntarily. The vast majority of staffers have chosen to stay, however, sources told CNN last week.

Russian Ambassador to the UN Vassily Nebenzia said during Monday’s UNSC meeting that there is no proof of military action against Ukraine, and instead asserted that his western UN colleagues are “whipping up tensions and rhetoric.”

Nebenzia accused the United States and other western colleagues of provoking escalation by fueling “hysteria” and creating a “sham tension” in the region.

“You are almost calling for this, you want it to happen. You’re waiting for it to happen, as if you want to make your words become a reality. This is despite the fact that we are constantly rejecting these allegations and this is despite the fact that no threat of a planned invasion into Ukraine from the lips of any Russian politician or public figure over all of this period has been made,” Nebenzia said.

The Russian ambassador went on to say that such talk of invasion was an “attempt to drive a wedge between Russia and Ukraine” and that “Ukrainians are actively being brainwashed.”

Nebenzia also called into question the estimate of 100,000 troops on the Russian-Ukrainian border, as stated earlier in the meeting by United States Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield. 

“Where did you get the figure of 100,000 troops that are deployed, as you state, on the Russian-Ukrainian border, although that is not the case? We have never cited that figure, we have never confirmed that figure,” Nebenzia said.

CNN’s Liam Reilly contributed to this report. 

President Biden said the US and its partners and allies are prepared for “every scenario” after a UN Security Council meeting on Russia’s “threat to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

In a statement released by the White House Monday, Biden said the US “made clear to the international community the full implications of that threat — not just for Ukraine, but for core tenets of the UN Charter and the modern international order.”

He continued: Biden said the world, “must be clear-eyed about the actions Russia is threatening and ready to respond to the risks those actions present to all of us,” and called the Monday meeting “a critical step in rallying the world to speak out in one voice: rejecting the use of force, calling for military de-escalation, supporting diplomacy as the best path forward, and demanding accountability from every member state to refrain from military aggression against its neighbors.”

Ukraine’s foreign minister said on Monday that “now is the time” for Russia to “make concessions.”

He said that the “best way” for Russia to prove that it does not want a war with Ukraine is to withdraw troops and military equipment from the border, and “give up any ideas about destabilizing the situation inside the country through contrived protests, cyberattacks, attempts to destabilize the normal way of life and functioning of the Ukrainian economy.”

“These are the first steps towards de-escalation that Russia can take today. At the same time, it is important to remember that Russia’s aggression against Ukraine will be over only when Russia withdraws its troops from Donbas and Crimea and Ukraine will return all its temporarily occupied territories through diplomacy.” 

“And we will not follow the path of further concessions to the Russian Federation if Russia does not stop its military escalation first,” he added.

The United Nations Security Council meeting on Ukraine took place in New York City Monday, despite objections by Russia and China.

The meeting was called by the United States. Ten country representatives voted in favor of holding the meeting, two votes against came from Russia and China, and three country representatives abstained. 

Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia asked to cancel Monday’s meeting, calling the accusations against Russia “a myth,” and alleged that the meeting is “a classic example of megaphone diplomacy” based on “unfounded accusations that we have refuted frequently.”

United States Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield countered by saying Monday’s public meeting is necessary after “over one hundred” private meetings over the course of the last few weeks with Russian, Ukrainian, and other European counterparts.

Prior to the start of Monday’s meeting, Chinese Ambassador the UN Zhang Jun told reports the country was against a public meeting in Ukraine.

“This is really the right time calling for quiet diplomacy, with more diplomatic efforts, instead of microphone diplomacy or public confrontation. And that’s also the concern of many members of the council. We all hope that with our efforts we can avoid adding fuel to the tension. And what’s really needed, badly needed, is more diplomatic efforts,” Zhang said.

CNN’s Michael Conte contributed reporting to this post.