Russia is “moving to conduct an attack” according to US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. Ukrainian officials also said that the violation of ceasefire continued in eastern Ukraine.
Interior Minister Denys Monastyrskiy reported several mortar fires on Sunday. He was on tour on the front lines and was giving interviews shortly prior to the bombing.
“We have information about the advance of the Russian army along with our territory,” he said. “There is also information that certain units of the Wagner PMC have entered our territory. The purpose of the stay is to organize sabotage in our territory.”
Munich Security Conference
Munich Security Conference
President Zelensky asked for the sanctions against Russia to be made public. The Munich Security Conference initially decided not to publicize the sanctions until Russia has invaded.
“The question of just making it public … just the list of sanctions, for them, for us, to know what will happen if they start the war — even that question does not have the support,” he said.
He argued that what use is the sanctions to them after their economy has collapsed due to invasion. He urged the members to make it public before applying pressure to Russia not to invade. He was asking for sanctions that can provide or he also suggested that Ukraine can provide a list.
“If you can’t even disclose what will happen to whom if the war starts … I doubt it will be triggered after it happens,” he added.
Russia has been amassing troops at the Ukrainian border. There were satellite images of about 150,000 soldiers. There were also additional reports of troops gathering in Crimea and other points of the border.
“Ukraine needs security guarantees,” Zelensky said. “We are smart people, we are not narrow-minded. We understand there are lots of different risks because of NATO, there is no consensus around other allies, everyone is saying there is some distance that we need to go between Ukraine and NATO that we need to walk. All we are saying is tell us how much time does it take to complete this distance?”