Biden urges Americans in Ukraine to leave, says 'things could go crazy quickly'
CBC
The latest:
Russia is massing yet more troops near Ukraine and an invasion could come at any time, perhaps before the end of this month's Winter Olympics, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday.
In his starkest warning yet to Americans in Ukraine to get out, U.S. President Joe Biden said he would not send troops to rescue U.S. citizens in the event of a Russian assault.
"Things could go crazy quickly," Biden told NBC News, as he urged U.S. citizens in Ukraine to leave the country immediately.
Blinken, visiting Australia, told a news conference: "We're in a window when an invasion could begin at any time — and to be clear, that includes during the Olympics."
The Beijing Games end on Feb. 20.
"Simply put, we continue to see very troubling signs of Russian escalation, including new forces arriving at the Ukrainian border," Blinken said.
WATCH | Russian troops continue to mass at Ukraine border:
Russia has already massed more than 100,000 troops near Ukraine, and this week it launched joint military exercises in neighbouring Belarus and naval drills in the Black Sea.
Moscow denies plans to invade Ukraine, but says it could take unspecified "military-technical" action unless a series of demands are met, including promises from NATO never to admit Ukraine to the alliance and to withdraw its forces from eastern Europe.
The West has said those main demands are non-starters. The EU and NATO delivered joint responses this week, saying their member states had agreed to speak as one. Russia's Foreign Ministry said on Friday it had demanded an individual answer from each country and called the collective response insulting.
"Such a step cannot be seen as anything other than a sign of diplomatic impoliteness and disrespect for our request," the ministry said.
Several Western countries launched diplomatic pushes this week to persuade Russia to back down, but Moscow brushed them off, yielding no concessions to French President Emmanuel Macron during a visit Monday and openly mocking British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss during a visit Thursday.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is expected to discuss the situation with Biden and other leaders in a call on Friday.
The leaders of Denmark and Greenland on Sunday urged U.S. President Donald Trump to stop threatening to take over Greenland, after he reiterated his wish to do so in an interview with The Atlantic magazine.
Venezuela's toppled leader, Nicolás Maduro, was in a New York detention centre on Sunday awaiting drug charges after U.S. President Donald Trump ordered an audacious raid to capture him, saying the United States would take control of the oil-producing nation.
The United States hit Venezuela with a “large-scale strike” early Saturday and said its president, Nicolás Maduro, along with his wife, had been captured and flown out of the country after months of stepped-up pressure by Washington — an extraordinary nighttime operation announced by President Donald Trump on social media hours after the attack.
The United Arab Emirates said early Saturday it had withdrawn all its troops from Yemen after escalating tensions in the war-torn country that pitted the UAE against fellow Gulf powerhouse Saudi Arabia.
Investigators on Friday set about the painful task of identifying the burned bodies of a blaze that engulfed a crowded bar and killed around 40 people at a New Year's Eve party in the upscale Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana.
Seven Canadians are among dozens injured after two trains collided head-on in Peru on Tuesday, Global Affairs Canada confirmed.