US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said that the White House is not able to predict the exact date of the "start of hostilities" in Ukraine and assumes that the escalation will not happen at all.

In an interview with CNN, he said that full-scale hostilities between Russia and Ukraine could begin any day. 

“The way they (Russia. -

RT

) built up their forces, the way they maneuvered on the spot, makes it clear that major hostilities will begin very soon ... This includes next week, until the end of the Olympics.

Of course, this can happen after the Olympics.

Or, this is still possible, Russia can choose the path of diplomacy, ”RIA Novosti quotes him as saying.

Sullivan also said that the American side advertises data on the situation around Ukraine in order to "stop the war" and prevent Russia from "arranging a surprise."

He opined that "military action could start with aerial bombardments" and added that the US was ready to complete the withdrawal of its diplomatic personnel as needed.

In addition, Sullivan said that the United States began preparing lists of representatives of the "Russian economic elites" against whom sanctions would be imposed in the event of a "Russian invasion".

“We are compiling lists of Russian economic elites who will be subject to sanctions, will not be able to travel freely and spend freely ... This will affect people around President Putin,” he said.

Political scientist Alexander Dudchak, in a conversation with RT, noted that with the help of such statements, the United States continues to "pump up hysteria."

“If this is part of the plans of the Washington administration, then they certainly know when they will provoke hostilities.

Because Russia is clearly not going to invade Ukraine... Lies and nonsense are so obvious that they are, of course, very angry at Russia and its leadership.

They keep announcing and announcing the invasion, but Russia still doesn’t invade,” the expert noted.

The American side has been setting and postponing the dates of the Russian "invasion" for the third month already, said the director of the US Research Foundation.

Franklin Roosevelt at Moscow State University Yuri Rogulev.

“It’s an incomprehensible situation, but the injection continues.

They leave a small window for themselves, saying that they do not know the exact date.

But now, they say, just about, now they should start ... This is a real information war.

An idea was invented and a task was set for this idea to take hold of the masses.

On its basis, real political decisions are made, phone calls and negotiations on de-escalation are made, ”he told RT.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in a conversation with the head of the European Council, Charles Michel, called on the EU to introduce “preventive” anti-Russian sanctions.

"The President of Ukraine ... stated the need to impose preventive sanctions against Russia in order to deter the aggressive intentions of the Kremlin," Zelensky's office said in a statement.

By making such statements, the Ukrainian leader is engaged in a “confrontation” with Moscow instead of focusing on the implementation of the Minsk agreements, Yuriy Pochta, a professor at the Department of Comparative Political Science at RUDN University, noted.

He drew attention to the fact that the President of Ukraine says that there are no signs of a possible “attack” by Russia.

“Moving away from the fundamental issue of implementing the Minsk agreements, he would like to continue to engage in confrontation with Russia,” the RT interlocutor emphasized.

However, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said that Washington is not considering imposing preventive sanctions against Russia.

According to him, in this case, restrictive measures would lose their deterrent.

“We believe that they retain this effect, being in reserve,” RIA Novosti quotes him.

Meanwhile, the Croatian Foreign Ministry, following a number of other states, recommended that its citizens leave the territory of Ukraine due to the growing tension around the state.

  • RIA News

  • © Stringer

Also, the newspaper Evropeiska Pravda, citing a diplomatic source, reported that the American employees of the US Embassy who remained in Ukraine were being transferred to work from Kiev to Lvov.

“This is a temporary solution, the embassy team will return to Kiev as soon as the situation allows,” an unnamed American diplomat told the publication.

In turn, the DPRK Foreign Ministry said that the United States, provoking an escalation of military tension around Ukraine, wants to create an excuse to justify its efforts to build up military forces aimed at putting pressure on Russia.

“The further the United States and NATO resort to an anti-Russian confrontational campaign, being captive to an anachronistic illusion, the stronger Russian response measures to protect their own security and interests become,” the department said.

Against the backdrop of the aggravation of the situation around Ukraine and due to the “deterioration of security”, the OSCE leadership announced the decision of a number of countries to redeploy their citizens working in the Special Monitoring Mission in Donbass.

The Russian Foreign Ministry expressed concern about this decision and urged not to involve the organization in "unscrupulous political games." 

“The mission is being deliberately dragged into the militaristic psychosis fomented by Washington and is being used as a tool for a possible provocation,” said Maria Zakharova, a ministry spokeswoman.