US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the
development in Russia and in Belarus suggested that the world is on the brink
of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Also Read: In Ukraine’s volatile east, a day of shelling, outages, fear

In an interview with CNN, Blinken, however, added that
the United States will remain committed until the last minute to using every
opportunity to see if diplomacy can dissuade Russian President Vladimir Putin
from going ahead with an invasion.

“Everything that we are seeing suggests that we
are on the brink of an invasion of Ukraine,” Reuters quotes Blinken as saying.

Also Read: Allies watch for Kremlin attempt to justify Russia’s Ukraine invasion

The Secretary of State also said that US President Joe
Biden is willing to meet Russia’s Vladimir Putin “at any time” to
defuse Ukraine war tensions, before adding that Russia
appeared on the verge of invading its neighbour.

In a rapid-fire round of US talk shows, Blinken told
CNN “everything we’re seeing suggests that this is dead serious, that we
are on the brink of an invasion.”

Also Read: UK intelligence claims Russia could invade Ukraine without further warning

“But until the tanks are actually rolling and the
planes are flying, we will use every opportunity and every minute we have to
see if diplomacy can still dissuade President Putin from carrying this
forward.”

Blinken told CBS’s “Face the Nation” Biden
has made “very clear that he’s prepared to meet President Putin at any
time, in any format, if that can help prevent a war.”

Also Read: Ukraine crisis: Blinken urges Russia to ‘abandon path of war’ at UNSC

On Thursday Blinken warned that Russian forces are
preparing to launch an attack against Ukraine in “coming days,”
adding that Russia’s invasion plans include capital Kyiv.

Russia plans to manufacture a pretext for an attack on
its neighbour that could include a fake or real assault using chemical weapons,
he also underlined.

Also Read: Russia threatens ‘military-technical’ response after expelling top US diplomat

Blinken told a UN Security Council meeting on Ukraine
that he had sent a letter to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov earlier on
Thursday proposing a meeting in person in Europe next week, as he called on
Russia to state clearly and plainly during the meeting that it would not invade
Ukraine.