US intelligence has information that Russian autocrat Vladimir Putin has given his country military orders to go ahead with invading Ukraine.
Russian Commanders Now Deciding on Specific Battlefield Maneuvers
Putin has some 200,000 troops and massive amounts of military equipment surrounding Russia’s former Soviet neighbor Ukraine on three sides, including from the north in Belarus.
Throughout 2021, Putin had been threatening implicitly that he would attack and conquer Ukraine.
According to the CBS report based on US intelligence information, not only has Putin given the order to attack and destroy Ukraine, but massive numbers of Russian military units are coming even closer to the Ukrainian border.
They are thus practically doing all that American military commanders would have done when given orders to attack, CBS News journalist David Martin noted based on the US intelligence information.
The report that the Russian autocrat has already greenlit an attack against Ukraine comes as Biden announced he is convinced Putin has now made up his mind to do that.
Prior to that, Biden kept reiterating the understanding of the US intelligence, diplomatic and military services that the Russian leader hadn’t made up his mind whether to attack.
NEWS: The U.S. has intelligence that Russian troops have received orders to proceed with an invasion of Ukraine. “The commanders on the ground are making specific plans for how they would maneuver in their sector of the battlefield,” CBS David Martin reports on @FacetheNation. pic.twitter.com/uKsfdWRQjV
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) February 20, 2022
Putin Prepped All He Needs for ‘Successful Invasion’
Meanwhile, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told ABC on Sunday the Russian autocrat has “assembled” what is needed in order to “conduct a successful invasion”.
Austin declared he has a “high” degree of confidence in the US intelligence information on the matter.
Biden’s Defense Secretary added “of course” there is no way to predict exactly what would happen, i.e. how the Russian invasion of Ukraine would play out; he made it clear the Pentagon is considering “every possibility”.
Austin also stated it is very likely for an invading Russian military to attempt a swift conquest of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, and a significant amount of combat power would be moved in its direction.
Biden’s Secretary of State Antony Blinken also gave a TV interview on Sunday, to CNN’s State of the Union.
He acknowledged there is a chance Putin could still be bluffing, but on the other hand, this is deadly serious, and the situation is “on the brink of” war.
Blinken once again reiterated there could still be a “diplomatic” way out of the current crisis; he is planning a meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov for later this week in case Putin hasn’t invaded Ukraine in the meantime.
The secretary of state argued “until the tanks start rolling”, the US diplomats would be trying anything possible to convince Putin to “reverse” his decision to start a war, which by all estimates is going to be the biggest war in Europe since World War II some 80 years ago.
WATCH: Secretary of State Antony Blinken says he plans to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov this week, provided a war hasn’t begun in Ukraine. #MTP #IfItsSunday@SecBlinken: "It's my responsibility to do everything I can to try diplomatically to prevent a war." pic.twitter.com/b3ufYQ2WeB
— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) February 20, 2022
