The White House announced that President Joe Biden held a meeting of the National Security Council, to discuss the latest developments regarding Russian military reinforcements on the borders of Ukraine.

This comes while military skirmishes were recorded in the eastern Donbass region between Moscow-backed separatists and the Ukrainian army.

US media reported that the meeting lasted two hours and discussed a plan to deal with a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine.

She added that Vice President Kamala Harris participated in the meeting by phone from her plane while returning from Munich.

A White House official stated that Biden has decided to stay in Washington, and will not leave it for Delaware as previously scheduled.

The "Washington Post" newspaper had revealed - earlier - that the meeting would discuss intelligence information indicating that Russian President Vladimir Putin had ordered the start of a large-scale attack on Ukraine.

The newspaper quoted European officials as saying that the American information was based on orders that Putin had issued to military and security leaders, and they had already started implementing them.

The newspaper added, quoting European officials, as saying that Washington did not share with its European partners the intelligence that speaks of Putin's decision to invade.

In turn, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken announced that President Biden is ready to talk to his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, at any time, in order to prevent war.


In an interview with CNN, Blinken added that he had contacted his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, to hold a meeting in Europe next week.

The US Secretary of State expressed his country's concern over the continuation of Russian-Belarusian military exercises.

Blinken said that these maneuvers confirm what he presented in the Security Council about Russia's attempt to fabricate provocations to justify aggression against Ukraine.

personal evacuation

On the other hand, the US Embassy in Moscow called on its citizens to prepare personal insurance and evacuation plans that do not depend on the US government.

The embassy said there had been threats of attacks on shopping malls, railway and metro stations, and public gatherings in key urban areas including Moscow and St Petersburg, as well as in areas of heightened tension along the Russia-Ukraine border.

On the other hand, the Russian ambassador to Washington, Anatoly Antonov, confirmed that his country does not plan to occupy the territory of another country.

Antonov added in an interview with the American channel "CBS" (CBS), that Moscow is not trying to seize the territory of any foreign countries, and confirms that Donetsk and Luhansk are part of Ukraine.


The Russian ambassador indicated that Moscow does not see any violation of international law through the presence of Russian forces in Belarus to conduct military exercises.

Tension in Donbass

In Kiev, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for an immediate ceasefire in the Donbass region (east of the country), and demanded Zelensky to activate the peace process and hold an immediate meeting of the tripartite contact group on Ukraine, in order to impose a truce in the region.

In the field developments, the Ukrainian army said that since Sunday morning it had recorded 45 violations of the ceasefire by pro-Russian separatists in the Donbass region.

The violations resulted in the injury of one soldier and two civilians in the bombing of a town near the ceasefire line.


In the same context, Al-Jazeera correspondent reported that the sounds of explosions were heard in the northern and western neighborhoods of Donetsk city, near the city's airport, which is located on the line of contact separating the separatists and the Ukrainian army.

The separatists had accused the Ukrainian forces of bombing residential areas in Donetsk 8 times on Sunday.

In another aspect of the scene, Belarusian Defense Minister Viktor Khrinin confirmed that his country and Russia decided to form a joint force, and to continue military maneuvers and joint exercises due to military activity near the borders of the two countries.

An analysis of air navigation data obtained by the News Monitoring and Verification Unit in the Al-Jazeera network revealed that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was able to monitor the movements of the Russian crowds around Ukraine and in Belarus, and the nature and capabilities of the forces.

Since the beginning of this year, NATO has subjected Russian forces around and inside Ukraine to continuous air surveillance.