Ukraine‘s President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, announced on Monday that his government has been informed that Wednesday, February 16, will be “attack day” when Russia invades Ukraine.

The US and its allies have frequently warned of an impending Russian invasion, which has stationed 130,000 troops near Ukraine’s northern, southern, and eastern borders. Russia denies that an invasion is in the works.

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“We are told that February 16 will be the day of the attack,” Zelenskyy claimed in a statement on Facebook, but he didn’t identify who gave him the information.

US President Joe Biden‘s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, stated on Sunday that a Russian invasion might start “any day now.”

While the military conflict in eastern Ukraine has been at a standstill since it began in early 2014, shelling and skirmishes continue to occur on a regular basis, with an uptick of violence in the spring of 2021.

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Russia began mobilising troops and military equipment near the Ukrainian border in October 2021, reigniting fears of an invasion. With no official explanation, commercial satellite photos and social media reports from November and December 2021 revealed armour, rockets, and other heavy weaponry moving toward Ukraine.

More than a hundred thousand troops were stationed near the border by December, and US intelligence sources warned that Russia could be planning an attack of Ukraine in early 2022.

The Russian foreign ministry announced a number of demands in mid-December 2021, including a ban on Ukraine joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and a reduction of NATO troops and military equipment in eastern Europe in exchange for the withdrawal of its military forces.

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The US and other NATO partners have rejected these requests, warning Russia of retribution, including economic sanctions, if Ukraine is invaded, and other support, including small guns and other defensive hardware, has been deployed to Ukraine.

Biden dispatched almost 3,000 US soldiers to the NATO countries of Poland and Romania in early February. The Biden administration has stated that the deployment is only temporary and that no US troops will be deployed to Ukraine.

Satellite images revealed Russia’s greatest force deployment near its border with Belarus since the conclusion of the Cold War. Tensions remain high as talks between Russia and the US, as well as other European nations such as France and Germany, continue without showing any signs of progress toward a formal deal.