War Or Genocide: US And Russia Trade Heated Accusations At UN As Biden Warns Invasion Approaches

The United States and Russia began a verbal joust on Thursday as the two sides fired off grim accusations at one another. All of this comes as President Joe Biden warns that Russia will likely invade Ukraine in the coming days as prospects of a diplomatic solution appear moribund.

On Thursday, U.S Secretary of State Antony Blinken is set to address the United Nations Security Council and layout the Biden administration’s fears that Russia is more ready than ever to invade Ukraine after months of a military buildup along their border. Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S ambassador to the U.N, said that she requested Blinken address the council before his trip to Munich for an international security conference.

“Our goal is to convey the gravity of the situation. The evidence on the ground is that Russia is moving toward an imminent invasion,” said Greenfield in a briefing before the Security Council meeting.

Blinken’s stark warning follows remarks earlier this week by President Vladimir Putin that suggested the Russian leader was interested in continuing talks with the West. This was joined by an announcement by the Russian Ministry of Defense that said it would begin pulling some of its troops back to their barracks away from the Ukrainian border following a set of military exercises.

Any initial hope for de-escalation was dashed soon after. Blinken and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg each said that there was no evidence that Russia was pulling back any of its forces, but was, in fact, reinforcing them with a fresh deployment of 7,000 more troops. On Thursday morning, President Biden told reporters that Washington saw no withdrawal and warned that an invasion of Ukraine by Russia was still on the horizon.

"Every indication that we have is that they are prepared to go into Ukraine, attack Ukraine," Biden said outside the White House. "My sense is it will happen within the next several days.”

Russia, which has vociferously denied any intention to invade Ukraine, arrived at the Security Council with its own warnings to deliver. According to documents reviewed by the Wall Street Journal, the Russian side will accuse the Ukrainian government of orchestrating genocide against Russian speakers in the Donbas border region.

This has been a claim echoed across Russian state television, but it is not supported by any evidence that Ukraine is conducting such egregious actions. Instead, officials believe that the “genocide” claims are part of a wider Russian effort that the United States has warned Russia will turn to as a fabricated pretext for any military offensive.

Russia and the West are locked in a bitter diplomatic stalemate after multiple rounds of diplomacy failed to gain any ground. The U.S estimates that Russia has concentrated up to 150,000 soldiers and equipment along Ukraine’s borders, and has repeatedly insisted that this force was for a military attack on the ex-Soviet state.

To address the situation, Russia has demanded that the West agree to a series of maximalist demands it issued in December. They have called for NATO to refuse membership to Ukraine and Georgia, another ex-Soviet country with disputes with Russia, and withdraw its forces to the 1997 boundaries of the alliance in Germany.

NATO has refused, arguing that it is a defensive alliance with an “open door” policy that cannot be vetoed by any outside power.