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February 10, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the intelligence around a Russian invasion of Ukraine was gloomy.
“I honestly don’t think a decision has yet been taken” by Moscow on whether to invade, Johnson told reporters at the headquarters of the NATO military alliance in Brussels alongside Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, Reuters reported the meeting. “That doesn’t mean that it is impossible that something absolutely disastrous could happen very soon indeed. And our intelligence, I’m afraid to say remains grim,” Johnson said.
The next few days could be the most dangerous moment in Europe’s biggest security crisis for decades as Russia stages war games in Belarus, he added.
Read also: Ukraine to hold military drills engaging Bayraktar drones, Javelin, NLAW missiles
“This is probably the most dangerous moment, I would say, in the course of the next few days, in what is the biggest security crisis that Europe has faced for decades, and we’ve got to get it right,” PM Johnson said.
While Johnson visited NATO, UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss held talks in Moscow with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. The UK is backing a strong line that Russia should not be able to prohibit countries from choosing to join the Alliance.
NATO is putting forces on standby and reinforcing its flanks in Eastern Europe with more ships and fighter jets as a response to Russian threats at Ukrainian borders. Washington wants to deploy several thousand troops in Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria. February 8, the first US troops arrived in Romania to bolster NATO’s eastern flank amid fears of a Russian invasion of Ukraine
Majorities across the EU believe Russia to invade Ukraine in 2022, a recent European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) survey shows. Poles are among the most pessimistic nations – 73% of respondents believe the war is very likely or quite likely..
