Russia-Ukraine live updates: West braces for false-flag operations by Kremlin as fighting in eastern Ukraine escalates

Western diplomats made a last-ditch push for a peaceful resolution to tensions between Russia and Ukraine at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, emphasizing that diplomacy remained an option up until the possible moment when Moscow launches an attack.

“While we’re convinced that President Putin has made his decision to go, until that — it actually happens — we will leave no stone unturned when it comes to diplomacy,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung.

His remarks came a day after President Biden said the U.S. government had reason to believe Putin has decided to invade Ukraine.

Blinken said he still planned to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov next week if Russia does not launch an incursion by then. The United States remains ready to engage with Russia on issues including the positioning of weapons systems and forces, he said.

Blinken called the level of coordination between the United States and Europe unprecedented.

“It’s the product of a very deliberate effort on both sides to do that,” he said. “And that means that whether we’re proceeding with whatever diplomatic opportunities may still be left, we’re doing it in a fully coordinated way. And if it comes to confronting Russian aggression, we’re also fully coordinated and the response will be swift, unified, and consequential.”

He added that Putin’s actions have produced “the opposite of his aims” by knitting NATO closer together and leading the alliance to shore up its eastern flank.

Pressed in a separate interview with Russian television channel Dozhd TV about the reliability of U.S. intelligence on Putin’s plans, Blinken said that although some information has “turned out to be inaccurate,” U.S. officials are confident in the intelligence.

“We’re very confident in the information we have, and we bring it forward not to start a war, but to prevent a war,” he said.

Foreign ministers with the Group of Seven called on Russia to de-escalate tensions with Ukraine. In a statement released by the White House, foreign ministers of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States and the High Representative of the European Union reiterated their “unwavering commitment to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders and territorial waters.”

“Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified massing of military forces, the largest deployment on the European continent since the end of the Cold War is a challenge to global security and the international order,” the group wrote. “We call on Russia to choose the path of diplomacy.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday that possible Western sanctions against Russia should be made public now to deter Moscow from invading Ukraine.

“We don’t need your sanctions after the bombardment will happen and after our country will be fired at or after we will have no borders and after we will have no economy or part of our country will be occupied. Why would we need those sanctions then?” he asked in an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour during a security conference in Munich.

Zelensky clarified that he was not necessarily asking countries to introduce sanctions today — just to make public a list “for Russia to know what will happen if they start the war.” But he acknowledged that there is little support for such a move among Western powers.

The United States and European allies have threatened severe economic consequences if Russia invades Ukraine, but some details remain to be agreed on or announced.

Before the CNN interview, Zelensky suggested that if Ukraine doesn’t receive new security guarantees from signatories of the Budapest Memorandum, it would consider the agreement void. The 1994 agreement, originally signed by Russia, the United States and Britain, gave security assurances to Ukraine in exchange for Ukraine giving up the sizable nuclear arsenal it acquired after the fall of the Soviet Union.

British Foreign Minister Liz Truss said Saturday that Ukraine’s “worst-case scenario” of a potential Russian invasion could happen as soon as next week.

Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, Truss said that Europe is facing one of its most serious security situations in years.

“That worst-case scenario could happen as early as next week,” she said. “The reality is that Russia does want to turn the clock back.”

Truss said there’s been a significant increase in disinformation throughout the region, including what she described as false-flag operations in Donbas, a contested region of eastern Ukraine where Kyiv government forces have been locked in a years-long conflict with Moscow-backed militants.

“I’m afraid that Russia has shown that they are not serious about diplomacy,” she said. “We need to be strong because that is the only thing that Russia understands.”

LVIV, Ukraine — Two Ukrainian soldiers were killed and five others were wounded as a result of shelling in eastern Ukraine on Saturday, the country’s defense minister, Oleksii Reznikov, said.

Reznikov did not provide further details in a statement posted on social media.

The defense minister reiterated that Ukrainian government forces were not planning to launch an offensive in the nation’s eastern Donbas region. But he also said Kyiv would “not allow the firing on the positions of our troops and human settlements with impunity.”

The deaths come as the Ukrainian military reports a tenfold increase in shelling in the past three days, accusing separatists of using weapons banned in previous agreements.

The sound of shelling could be heard at a crossing between Ukraine and the separatist-controlled Luhansk territory Saturday — another indication of an escalation in fighting and tension between Ukraine’s government forces and the pro-Russian militants.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky received a standing ovation when he took the podium at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday. But after thanking the crowd for the warm reception, Zelensky had some sharp words for Western leaders.

“Has our world completely forgotten the mistakes of the 20th century? Where does the appeasement policy usually lead to?” he said.

He added: “How did we get to this point in the 21st century where war is being waged and people are dying in Europe? … To me, this answer is obvious: The security architecture of our world is brittle, it is obsolete. The rules that have been agreed upon by the world dozens of years ago are no longer working.”

Zelensky traveled to the conference to speak to assembled dignitaries about the escalating threat of a Russian invasion as shelling by Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine intensified.

Zelensky blamed countries around the world for their “indifference that turns them into accomplices” as “some countries are committing crimes.” He said the global security system is slow and ineffective, likening it to “a cough syrup instead of a good covid vaccine.”

Western officials repeated their support for Ukraine at the conference this weekend and warned that Russia will face severe sanctions if it attacks. Some countries have also sent defensive weaponry and other supplies to Ukraine.

Zelensky thanked countries for their support but cast the crisis as a grave threat to Europe writ large, arguing that the West had an obligation to do more to prevent “a third world war.”

“Everybody needs to understand this is not some kind of donation Ukraine should be reminding or begging for, this is not just a broad gesture that Ukraine should be bowing down for — this is your contribution into the European and international security for which Ukraine has been serving as a shield for eight years now,” he said.

Zelensky called on NATO to specify a timeline for Ukraine’s possible membership in the alliance. He also asked for additional military support to Ukraine and preventive sanctions against Russia.

In an interview with CNN, Zelensky said any provocations in eastern Ukraine would be dangerous. “One shelling, one cannon fire can lead to war,” he warned.

Lufthansa and Austrian Airlines announced Saturday that all flights to the Ukrainian capital will be temporarily suspended as fears of a potential Russian strike mount.

The German airliner Lufthansa said in a news release that the company was suspending flights to and from Kyiv between Monday and Feb. 28.

“Lufthansa is constantly monitoring the situation and will decide on further flights at a later date,” the company said.

Austrian Airlines, which is part of the Lufthansa Group, noted that it was suspending flights to Kyiv from Sunday through the end of the month. The company said flights to Odessa would also be suspended during that period.

The moves come shortly after Dutch airline KLM announced that all flights into Ukraine were canceled until further notice.

Lufthansa and Austrian Airlines are still offering flights to Lviv, a western city close to the Polish border, according to Bloomberg News.

KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian officials rejected claims it had fired artillery rounds onto Russian soil, saying the claims were part of false flag operations to justify an invasion.

Russian state-owned media claimed artillery was fired over the border and landed in the Rostov region.

“We resolutely refute all accusations of any alleged Ukrainian shells falling on the Russian territory. Ukraine has never opened any such fire,” said Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s foreign affairs minister. “We call for an immediate and impartial international investigation of the incidents reported by Russian media.”

Lt. General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the head of Ukraine’s armed forces, said in a statement that the alleged shelling exceeded the reach of its artillery in the region.

“The invaders themselves undermine infrastructure in the occupied territories, carry out chaotic shelling of settlements and deliberately produce false reports,” Zaluzhnyi said.

Russia’s Investigative Committee on Saturday opened a criminal investigation into what it called, without evidence, “the fact of shelling” in the Rostov region in southern Russia “from the territory of Ukraine.” Earlier, Interfax cited Rostov authorities stating they found two exploded shells near a village in the region.

Germany and France on Saturday urged their nationals to immediately leave Ukraine as tensions with Russia and shelling in Ukraine’s east increased.

“German nationals are urged to leave the country now,” Germany’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement. “A military confrontation is possible at any time.”

The statement warned that support for German nationals in Ukraine would be limited if Russia invades.

The French Foreign Ministry called on French nationals in Kharkiv, Luhansk and Donetsk — areas in eastern Ukraine, where shelling by Russia-backed separatists has intensified in recent days — to leave quickly. It recommended that people exercise increased vigilance and refrain from traveling to the north or east of the country, and that French citizens who do not have a “compelling motive” to remain in Ukraine depart the country.

France’s ambassador to Ukraine, Etienne de Poncins, last week urged French citizens in Ukraine to prepare a supply of water, food, warm clothing and fuel but said France was not “at this stage” asking all French residents of Ukraine to leave the country.

The United States, Britain and other countries have already urged their citizens to leave Ukraine.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and his German counterpart, Annalena Baerbock, condemned “the use of heavy weaponry and indiscriminate shelling of civilian areas” in the contested east, they said in a statement Friday, calling the activity a “clear violation of the Minsk agreements.”