Ukraine latest: Separatists call full mobilization

International

-DW News

Kyiv,
Feb
19:
The
self-proclaimed
Donetsk
People’s
Republic
leader,
Denis
Pushilin,
announced
an
order
on
general
mobilization
on
Saturday.

“I
urge
fellow
countrymen
who
are
in
the
reserve
to
come
to
the
military
commissariats.
Today
I
have
signed
a
decree
on
general
mobilization,”
Pushilin
said
in
a
video
message.

On
Friday,
Donetsk
and
the
other
self-proclaimed
region,
Luhansk
started
to
evacuate
their
breakaway
region’s
residents
to
Russia.

Ukrainian
government
forces
and
pro-Russian
rebels
reported
increased
shelling
in
the
east
over
the
last
few
days.

Washington
and
other
Western
allies
say
it
could
form
part
of
a
Russian
pretext
to
invade
Ukraine.

“There
is
simply
no
evidence
to
these
assertions
and
it
defies
basic
logic
to
believe
the
Ukrainians
would
choose
this
moment,
with
well
over
150,000
[Russian]
troops
arrayed
on
its
borders,
to
escalate
a
yearslong
conflict,”US
President
Joe
Biden
said
on
Friday.

Russia
has
repeatedly
denied
that
it
has
no
plans
to
attack
its
neighbor.

Russia
rejected
claims
it
was
responsible
for
cyber-attack
on
Ukraine

On
Saturday,
Russia
denied
allegations
that
it
was
responsible
for
cyber-attacks
on
dozens
of
official
Ukrainian
websites.

The
US,
UK,
and
Ukraine
blamed
Moscow
of
being
behind
the
spate
of
distributed
denial
of
service
(DDoS)
attacks
that
briefly
knocked
out
banking
and
government
websites.

“We
categorically
reject
these
baseless
statements
of
the
administration
and
note
that
Russia
has
nothing
to
do
with
the
mentioned
events
and
in
principle
has
never
conducted
and
does
not
conduct
any
‘malicious’ operations
in
cyberspace,”
the
Russian
embassy
in
the
US
wrote
on
Twitter.

We
have
taken
note
of
purely
anti-Russian
statements
of
Deputy
National
Security
Advisor
Anne
Neuberger,
who
accused
the
Russian
special
services
of
cyberattacks
on
Ukrainian
defense
agencies
and
banks.

pic.twitter.com/AVuyQ8swWl

—
Russian
Embassy
in
USA
????????
(@RusEmbUSA)

February
19,
2022

Harris
to
push
Western
unity

US
Vice
President
Kamala
Harris
was
expected
to
warn
Moscow
on
Saturday
that
an
invasion
of
Ukraine
could
likely
lead
to
an
even
bigger
NATO
footprint
on
Russia’s
doorsteps.

She
would
use
her
speech
at
the
Munich
Security
Conference
in
Germany
to
push
for
“strength
through
unity,” a
senior
administration
official
who
spoke
on
the
condition
of
anonymity
told
the
Associated
Press.

She
already
touched
on
the
theme
on
Friday
when
she
declared
“our
greatest
strength
is
our
unity” as
she
met
with
the
leaders
of
Estonia,
Latvia
and
Lithuania
on
the
sidelines
of
the
conference.

The
Baltic
countries
have
requested
the
US
to
increase
its
troop
presence.

Source: DW