Washington: Russian President Vladimir Putin could order an attack on Ukraine within days or weeks, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan warned, as Washington and its European allies continued efforts to offer Putin a diplomatic way out of the crisis.
“We are in the window. Any day now, Russia could take military action against Ukraine, or it could be a couple of weeks from now, or Russia could choose to take the diplomatic path instead,” Sullivan told the Fox News Sunday program.
Sullivan made the comments in television interviews after two US officials on Saturday said Russia, which seized Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, has in place about 70 percent of the combat power it believes it would need for a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
As Russia masses more than 100,000 troops near the border, Moscow has said it is not planning an invasion but could take unspecified military action if its security demands are not met.
If Putin is not deterred by the diplomatic push, possible Russian action could include annexing Ukraine’s Donbass region, where Russian-backed separatists broke away from Ukrainian government control in 2014, cyberattacks, or a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Sullivan said.
