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Europe

World

National Security

Military

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/ukraine-russia/

War in Ukraine

Jakub Stezycki

The Biden administration on Wednesday readied plans for U.S. military forces to help evacuate Americans once they cross into Poland should Russia attack Ukraine, preparations that came one day ahead of a major Russian military exercise on Ukraine’s border that some officials fear could provide cover for an invasion.

About 7,500 Americans are registered with the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv and thousands more could be in the country but the U.S. government has no way to track them, according to U.S. officials.

The White House said there were no plans for the U.S. troops from the 82nd Airborne Division, which began arriving in Poland last week, to enter Ukraine. They will handle logistics and other support on the Polish side of the border and assist U.S. citizens who have reached Poland.

“To be clear, we are not planning for a mass evacuation of American citizens from Ukraine,” said a White House official, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss administration deliberations. “President Biden has been clear that we believe Americans in Ukraine would be wise to leave Ukraine.”

Officials are concerned that if hostilities break out between Russia and Ukraine, Americans in Ukraine will have limited options to exit.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby raised the possibility that U.S. soldiers could set up shelters or tents in Poland for evacuees, but he said he didn’t envision an operation in which the military would directly help remove civilians from harm’s way.

Kirby said the State Department has been “exceedingly consistent and clear about warning Americans away from traveling to Ukraine.” Americans still there have the chance right now to “do the right thing — while there is time to do it,” he said.

The <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/white-house-approves-plan-to-help-americans-leaving-ukraine-if-russia-attacks-11644413069?mod=hp_lead_pos1" target="_blank">Wall Street Journal</a> first reported on the planned role for U.S. troops.

Top Russian military commanders flew into neighboring Belarus on Wednesday for the exercise. It will involve thousands of Russian troops and sophisticated weapons systems. Russia has announced the deployment of S-400 surface-to-air missiles, Pantsir air defense systems and Su-35 fighter jets to Belarus for the exercise. Russian and Belarusian officials have said Russian troops will return to their base after the maneuvers.

U.S. and European officials worry the exercise could put Russian forces in position for a multipronged invasion of Ukraine, with troops invading from Belarus, to the north, and Russia in the east.

Ukrainian troops will also begin drills Thursday using armed drones and antitank weapons provided by the United States and other NATO members. Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov has said the drills, scheduled to take place through Feb. 20, are a response to the Russian exercises near the border.

Reznikov said Russia has massed 140,000 service members in the region. U.S. officials have said previously that number could rise to 175,000 and that Russia is staging the forces necessary for a full-scale invasion.

Shuttle <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/02/07/ukraine-russia-scholz-biden-macron/" target=_blank>diplomacy</a> by top U.S. and European officials, including French President Emmanuel Macron’s trips to Moscow and Kyiv this week, have produced no breakthrough.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Wednesday that President Biden had spoken to Macron following his meetings and that she expected Biden to speak with other European leaders this week.

She said Russia had not changed its behavior and was taking “escalatory” steps.

In a letter to Biden on Wednesday, a bipartisan group of senators urged the administration to share more intelligence with Ukraine. “Russia is the aggressor, and we need to arm Ukraine with critical information needed to defend their country,” the members of the Senate Intelligence Committee wrote.

Privately, Ukrainian officials have complained that the United States appears to have relevant intelligence that hasn’t been shared with them about Russia’s planning. One adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the intelligence U.S. officials have provided was of limited value.

But Biden administration officials say they have declassified and made public an extraordinary amount of intelligence, including information gleaned from satellite imagery and other sources. It has revealed Russian <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/russia-ukraine-invasion/2021/12/03/98a3760e-546b-11ec-8769-2f4ecdf7a2ad_story.html" target="_blank">troop locations</a> and buildups; alleged Kremlin <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/uk-accuses-russia-of-scheming-to-install-a-pro-kremlin-government-in-ukraine/2022/01/22/41c0999e-7bde-11ec-b79d-e53ef5e1fbe2_story.html" target="_blank">plotting</a> to replace the government in Kyiv with people aligned with Moscow; and a plot to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/02/03/russia-ukraine-staged-attack/" target="_blank">concoct</a> a pretext for invasion by staging and filming a fake Ukrainian attack on Russia or Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.

U.S. and British officials have privately expressed frustration that Zelensky and his inner circle are downplaying the Russian threat. But the Ukrainian leader and his advisers have stressed they don’t want to panic Ukrainian citizens and trigger a financial crisis. They continue to press for diplomatic solutions to the crisis.

Russia sends warships toward Black Sea as Europe ramps up Ukraine crisis diplomacy

Russian officials continue to blame the United States and NATO for driving tensions.

“Russia and Belarus have encountered unprecedented threats, the nature and, perhaps, concentration of which are, unfortunately, much larger and much more dangerous than before,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Moscow is demanding a sweeping rewrite of the post-Cold War European security order, including an end to NATO expansion and the removal of alliance forces and troops from Eastern Europe and the Baltic states.

Washington and NATO have rejected these demands, offering limited, reciprocal measures on arms control and military exercises in written submissions to the Kremlin. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Wednesday that Russia is still considering its response to the proposals and that a final decision would be made by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Ryabkov said that “everything else depends” on whether the United States and NATO are willing to negotiate seriously on Russia’s demands. But so far, he said, the U.S. proposal to Russia contained “unacceptable statements,” while NATO’s document offered “rudeness and defiant language.”

NATO diplomats said they worry Putin’s demands are so expansive that there is little or no room for a compromise that all sides would find acceptable.

What’s happening in the Ukraine-Russia crisis

Hannibal Hanschke

<i>Pannett reported from Sydney and Dixon reported from Moscow. Ashley Parker, Michael Birnbaum and Amy B Wang in Washington contributed to this report.</i>

Gerald R. Ford Foundation Prize for Distinguished Reporting on National Defense, presented in 2023 for coverage of the U.S. evacuation from Afghanistan and its aftermath

Major Megan McClung Award, presented by Marine Corps Heritage Foundation in 2023 for coverage of the U.S. evacuation from Afghanistan and its aftermath

Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, presented in 2022 for team coverage of the attack on the U.S. Capitol

Major Megan McClung Award, presented by the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation in 2020 for distinguished reporting about an infantry unit's reintegration into civilian life as the war in Afghanistan wound down

 Colonel Robert D. Heinl Jr. Award, presented by the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation in 2018 for distinguished feature writing and accompanying podcast about a family of brothers in World War II

Major Megan McClung Award, presented by the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation in 2011 for distinguished reporting alongside infantry Marines in combat in Afghanistan

University of Massachusetts at Amherst, BA in journalism

University of Maryland at College Park, master's in journalism

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Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, The Washington Post, 2021

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Wake Forest University, B.A. in Politics

Shane Harris writes about intelligence and national security. He was a member of reporting teams that won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, as well as two George Polk Awards. He is also the winner of the Gerald R. Ford Prize for Distinguished Reporting on National Defense. Shane is the author of two books, "The Watchers" and "@War." 

Shane Harris

2016: Winner of the Overseas Press Club Madeline Dane Ross Award for international reporting on the human condition

2016: Reporting fellow, International Women’s Media Foundation  

2016: Anchored the Los Angeles Times story, "Diary of Terror," that was awarded an Associated Press Media Editors award in the Sally Jacobsen International Perspective category, as well as a citation for storytelling from the APME

2009: Winner of the Daniel Pearl Award for courage and integrity in reporting

2009: Awarded the Batten Medal by the American Society of Newspaper Editors, recognizing “compassion, courage, humanity and a deep concern for the underdog"

2008: Citation by the Overseas Press Club in relation to the Joe and Laurie Dine award for international reporting dealing with human rights

2008: Winner of the Robert F. Kennedy award for international reporting on human rights, social justice or the power of individual action

2007: Winner of the Society of Professional Journalists' Sigma Delta Chi award for international reporting.

Presbyterian Ladies' College, Burwood, Australia

Robyn Dixon is a foreign correspondent on her third stint in Russia, after almost a decade reporting there beginning in the early 1990s. In November 2019 she joined The Washington Post as Moscow bureau chief. 

Robyn Dixon

Asia 2000 annual travel award for journalists reporting in the Asia-Pacific.

Massey University, BA in Social Anthropology and Journalism

Rachel Pannett joined the Post's foreign desk in 2021 after more than a decade with The Wall Street Journal, where she was deputy bureau chief for Australia and New Zealand.