The brink of war

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President Biden has this evening warned an invasion of Ukraine is imminent. The British and Dutch governments have told their nationals to leave the country “while commercial means are available”, writes Maggie Pagano.

The US president, who has also advised American citizens in Ukraine that they should leave immediately, said that some embassy staff would be withdrawn because of fears that the Russians are getting ready to invade. US officials have briefed that intelligence suggests a decision to invade has either been made or is about to be.

Biden’s new warning comes after a week of tense high-level diplomacy aimed at defusing the tensions between Ukraine and Russia. In a statement, the White House said Biden was now in talks with British, French and German leaders to discuss “our shared concerns about Russia’s continued build-up of military forces around Ukraine and continued co-ordination on both diplomacy and deterrence”.

Russia has repeatedly denied any plans to invade Ukraine despite massing more than 130,000 troops near the border.

Ben Wallace, the UK defence secretary, today made a last ditch trip to Moscow in a bid to warn his counterpart and key Russian military figures of the consequences of invasion.

NATO ambassadors are holding a highly unusual Friday evening meeting. In a call with other world leaders,  Boris Johnson said he feared for the security of Europe. The PM called on allies to have a “heavy package of economic sanctions ready to go” should Russia make the “devastating and destructive decision” to invade Ukraine. The leaders also agreed that if President Putin were to de-escalate the situation, they would double down on diplomatic efforts to find a solution and a way out of full-scale invasion.

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