MUNICH, Germany — Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said Friday that Russia’s plan to create a pretext for invading Ukraine “is already in play,” as the situation in the former Soviet republic took a more ominous turn, with Russian-backed separatists claiming they were the victims of artillery shelling and sabotage.
“Even as we are doing everything we possibly can to make clear that there’s a diplomatic path,” Blinken said, “we are deeply concerned that that is not the path that Russia has embarked on.”
America’s top diplomat and Vice President Kamala Harris are attending the Munich Security Conference — an annual meeting of Western allies and security experts — as the U.S. and European powers grapple with how to forestall a Russian invasion of its western neighbor. The Biden administration has said it will not send troops to defend Ukraine and has threatened to impose punishing economic sanctions if war breaks out. U.S. and Western officials have warned repeatedly in recent days that Russia and its allies in Ukraine will seek to utilize disinformation — lying about Ukrainian attacks or even staging them — to create a pretext to invade the country. Ukrainian officials asserted that separatists’ claims on Friday of being attacked were all bogus.
The show of unity comes as Russia, which has 150,000 troops amassed around Ukraine, announced weekend nuclear drills that would test the “reliability” of its nuclear weapons, yet another stark reminder of the stakes in the standoff between the Kremlin and NATO.
But the more immediate danger seemed to be from so-called false-flag operations — incidents Moscow could use an excuse to launch a blitz-style assault into Ukraine. On Friday morning, Russian media and outlets affiliated with separatists in Donetsk claimed Ukrainian forces were hitting them with artillery. They also reported that authorities had foiled what they described as two incidents of sabotage.
The situation grew more serious at 7 p.m. local time when authorities in Dontesk claimed a car bomb exploded in a parking lot near the government building. The sound of the explosion could “be heard across the entire city,” according to a statement from Donetsk authorities, which urged residents to “remain calm, be vigilant and avoid moving about the city.”
The images of the explosion and claims of shelling, as well as sabotage attacks, could not be independently verified by the Los Angeles Times.
Denis Pushilin, the self-proclaimed leader of the separatist republic in Donetsk, declared that Ukrainian forces were poised to attack the Russian-backed enclave and on Friday ordered a mass evacuation of some areas under separatist control.
Evacuations were to begin in the evening, with women, children and the elderly being the first sent to safety. The refugees will be housed in the southern Russian region of Rostov, where Russian state media said Putin had dispatched his Emergencies Minister to set up camps.
In videos posted to social media, the blare of air raid sirens could be heard all over Donetsk, with multicolored buses lining up to transport residents to refugee centers. Moscow said all of those evacuated would receive 10,000 rubles (almost $130).
Ukrainian officials, who have ordered their troops to avoid measures that might been seen as provocative, rushed to declare that they had no plans for any attacks.
“Militants backed by the Russian federation continue to aggravate the situation by deliberately misleading residents of the temporarily occupied territories,” wrote Lt. Gen. Valeriy Zaluzhnyy, the commander in chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, on his official Facebook page.
The Ukrainian foreign ministry released a statement saying that allegations of an offensive operation “are divorced from reality.”
“We remain firmly committed to politico-diplomatic settlement,” the statement said.
President Joe Biden said he would speak with Western leaders by phone Friday afternoon and address the nation later Friday.
The crisis has rekindled tensions with Russia reminiscent of the Cold War as American and European leaders contemplate a conflict that would likely rattle the global economy and risk setting off a wider conflict should there be any miscalculations.
Kyiv, Ukraine, Mayor Vitali Klitschko, speaking from the audience at the event while Blinken was on stage, thanked allies for their financial support but said “what we need right now (is) defensive weapons.”
“We’re ready to fight with our families,” he said, faulting Western countries for leaving his country vulnerable, despite a 1994 security agreement that led the nation to give up its large supply of Soviet-era nuclear weapons.
Blinken responded that he appreciated “not only the substance of your words, but also the emotion behind them,” as he pointed to $650 million in weapons support from the United States last year and extolled the virtue of solidarity.
Though hopes for a diplomatic resolution were thinning, Blinken agreed Thursday night to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov late next week, “provided there is no further Russian invasion of Ukraine,” said State Department spokesman Ned Price. “If they do invade in the coming days, it will make clear they were never serious about diplomacy.”
On the sidelines of the conference, Harris met with Jens Stoltenberg, the secretary-general of NATO, which is coordinating efforts by the leading Western democracies to fortify Ukraine’s defenses and, with the threat of severe economic sanctions, to deter Russian President Vladimir Putin from violating its sovereignty.
“This is a dynamic moment in time,” Harris said at the start of the meeting, asserting that Putin’s buildup of troops has bolstered NATO. “We remain, of course, supportive of diplomacy as it relates to the dialogue and discussions we’ve had with Russia. But we are also committed to taking corrective actions to ensure there will be severe consequences in terms of the sanctions we have discussed, and we know the alliance is strong in that regard.”
Stoltenberg concurred with Harris’ assessment that Putin’s decision to test NATO has strengthened the trans-Atlantic alliance.
“The reality is that North America and Europe are doing more together now than they’ve done for many years,” he said. “That’s important to deal with the aggressive actions of Russia, but also to address a more competitive world and the security consequences of the rise of China.”
The Biden administration has worked to highlight the ongoing buildup of Russian troops on the border with Ukraine and in neighboring Belarus, pushing back hard on the notion that Putin is serious about drawing down forces and returning to the negotiating table. On Thursday, both Biden and Blinken, in a speech at the United Nations, warned that an invasion by Russia appeared to be imminent.
The White House has also continued to focus attention on the likelihood of a Kremlin attempt to create a false pretext for an invasion. Russian state-controlled media have been issuing a steady stream of disinformation alleging atrocities against ethnic Russians in eastern Ukraine, where pro-Moscow separatists have been fighting off and on against Ukrainian forces since 2014.
In Germany, Harris also met with the leaders of the three Baltic states, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, all of which border Russia and became NATO members following the breakup of the Soviet Union.
“We have prioritized the importance of diplomacy,” she said. “The onus is on Russia at this point to demonstrate that it is serious in that regard.”
Harris also affirmed America’s commitment to Article V of the NATO charter, which states that an attack against one member will be treated as an attack on all. All three leaders emphasized the importance of remaining unified in the face of Russian aggression.
“We have all lost our independence to Russia once, and we don’t want it to happen again, said Kaja Kallas, Estonia’s prime minister.
“It’s about democracy, really,” she continued. “Why Russia is doing this is because (Putin) doesn’t want democracy to prevail in Ukraine.”
Ukraine is not a member of NATO. Putin has insisted it be permanently banned as a condition of ending the standoff. The U.S. and its allies say they will not agree to bar a sovereign country from seeking to join the alliance.
Friday’s meetings set the stage for Harris’ speech to the full conference Saturday, where, aides say, she plans to emphasize the importance of a united NATO and assert that Putin, by testing the alliance, has strengthened it and that an invasion of Ukraine would leave Russia far weaker economically.
She will also meet Saturday with Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who, despite the possibility of a Russian assault, plans to fly to Munich for several hours of meetings. Additionally, Harris is scheduled to meet with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
She is planning to return to Washington on Sunday.
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(Stokols reported from Munich. Bierman reported from Dalton, Massachusetts. Bulos reported from Kyiv, Ukraine.)
