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We have gathered the most important news of February 19 for you.
Russian lists
Multiple US and western government officials tell CNN that the US has intelligence that Russia has drawn up lists of current political figures that it would target for removal in the event it invades Ukraine and topples the current government in Kyiv.
Read also: 149,000 Russian troops placed at Ukraine’s border, – Ukraine’s Defense Minister
Sources familiar with the intelligence say the target lists are part of Russian planning to replace the current administration in Kyiv with a more Russia-friendly government, bolstering a previous disclosure by the British government identifying pro-Moscow figures it said Russia planned to install. The most likely outcome for those politicians and public figures whom Moscow has targeted to be ousted in the event Kyiv falls, these sources say, is jail or assassination.
Zelensky in Munich demands security guarantees
Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that he was initiating talks between the participants in the Budapest Memorandum on providing Ukraine with security guarantees, and if negotiations failed, Kyiv would question the decision to renounce nuclear weapons.
And I hope no one thinks of Ukraine as a convenient and eternal buffer zone between the West and Russia. This will never happen. Nobody will allow that. Otherwise – who’s next? Will NATO countries have to defend each other? I want to believe that the North Atlantic Treaty and Article 5 will be more effective than the Budapest Memorandum.
In the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, the United States, Russia, and Britain committed “to respect the independence and sovereignty and the existing borders of Ukraine” and “to refrain from the threat or use of force” against the country. Those assurances played a key role in persuading the Ukrainian government in Kyiv to give up what amounted to the world’s third-largest nuclear arsenal, consisting of some 1,900 strategic nuclear warheads.
Ceasefire violation
Over the past day, on February 19, the Ukrainian side recorded 136 violations of the ceasefire by militants in Donbas.
February 19, as a result of the hostile shelling in eastern Ukraine, Ukrainian soldier Anton Sydorov, father of three children, was killed.
Read also: Ukraine is not your enemy, – Ukraine’s Defense Minister appealed to occupied Donbas residents Every fifth Ukrainian estimates probability of Putin’s invasion as high, – poll
Ukraine’s Armed Forces leaders believe that the Russian military and special services are preparing terrorist acts in the occupied territories of Donbas to use them as an excuse to bring armed forces into Ukraine under the guise of “peacekeepers.”
The head of a Russia-dominated military alliance that is sometimes called Moscow’s answer to NATO – Collective Security Treaty Organization – has said his organization could send peacekeepers to territory in eastern Ukraine controlled by Russia-backed rebels if needed. Ukraine is not a Collective Security Treaty Organization member, so entering Ukraine’s territory by the organization’s forces would be a rude violation of international law.
Situation in occupied territories of Donbas
Hundreds of evacuated from occupied Donetsk and Luhansk residents spent the whole night in cold buses in the Rostov region of the Russian Federation, they have not been hosted anywhere yet. Earlier, self-proclaimed leaders of the unrecognized republics called on the locals to evacuate to Russia under the guise of Ukraine’s alleged offensive against Donbas. They also declared the readiness of the Russian Federation to place people on its territory and called on men “ready to take up arms, to defend” the pseudo-republic.
Read also: Ukraine is not your enemy, – Ukraine’s Defense Minister appealed to occupied Donbas residents
In addition, self-proclaimed leaders of unrecognized republics in Donbas signed a decree on general mobilization.
Diplomatic battle lines
Presidents of Ukraine and France, Volodymyr Zelensky and Emmanuel Macron had a telephone conversation on the situation in Donbas.
US President Joe Biden will hold a meeting of the National Security Council on the situation in Ukraine on Sunday.
Anka Feldhusen, German ambassador to Ukraine, stated that the Budapest Memorandum is a format without legal obligations under international law.
Ukraine could face the worst-case scenario of a Russian invasion as soon as next week, and Europe faced one of its most perilous security situations since the early 20th century, British foreign minister Liz Truss said.
