On Saturday, the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Lieutenant General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, issued a strong statement regarding the readiness of the Ukrainian military for a potential Russian invasion.
“I assure that the Armed Forces of Ukraine are ready to fight back. We conduct and will conduct training. Already the active phase of the command-staff exercises ‘Snowstorm-2022’ is being carried out throughout our country,” Zaluzhnyi said. “We are constantly improving our [defense] capabilities, coherence of units and military skills. We have created combat formations and managed to deploy the Territorial [Defense] Forces in a short time and arm them with ATGMs and MANPADS. We have strengthened the [defense] of Kyiv. We went through the war and received proper training. Therefore, they are ready to meet enemies not with flowers, but with Stingers, Javelins and NLAW. Welcome to hell!”
Ukraine Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov also released remarks.
After noting that many Ukrainians were not psychologically prepared for the 2014 annexation of Crimea by Russia, Reznikov said that the times have changed, which is something of which “the Kremlin is well aware.”
“Anyone who has looked our soldiers in the eyes at least once is convinced that there will be no repeat of 2014, that the aggressor will not take Kyiv, Odesa, Kharkiv, or any other city,” Reznikov said. “Do not doubt, the Armed Forces are absolutely ready to fight back and will not give up the Ukrainian lands!”
“We plan to follow the political-diplomatic path,” said Reznikov before adding that it will be “through diplomacy and peace” that Ukraine regains disputed regions, Crimea, and opens up the Black Sea, and that the Territorial Defence Forces are “important diplomatic arguments.”
As Russian threats of an invasion of Ukraine escalate, the United States has pulled troops from the former Soviet nation, and the State Department has ordered “most U.S. direct hire employees” to leave the embassy in Kyiv.
According to a Level 4 travel advisory from the State Department, a small contingent of consular staff will remain in Lviv, Ukraine, which is approximately 291 miles west of Kyiv, for emergency purposes, but all consular activities in Kyiv will be suspended as of Sunday.
The advisory added that “the U.S. government will not be able to evacuate U.S. citizens in the event of Russian military action anywhere in Ukraine.”
During a Saturday phone call, as The Daily Wire reported, President Joe Biden warned Russian President Vladimir Putin that if he follows through with an invasion of Ukraine, “the United States together with our Allies and partners will respond decisively and impose swift and severe costs on Russia,” according to a readout of the call.
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Source: Dailywire
