Biden officials are in talks with Asian economic leaders to find support for tougher sanctions and export control packages against Russia as tensions escalate over disputes over Russian troops sent to rebel zones in eastern Ukraine.
Washington has so far received support from Singapore, Japan and Taiwan over plans to restrict imports from Russia, three US sources say Foreign Policy, which is part of a sanctions package aimed at crushing Russia's economy and technology sector as the Kremlin moves forward. plans to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Three Asian countries are major manufacturers of semiconductors, computer chips, and other exports of high-tech products on which Russia relies.
The latest developments, described in the Foreign Policy by three people familiar with the matter, reflect the negative global impact of using large-scale sanctions against Moscow. The biggest impact of any economic retaliation against Russia will extend beyond European border.
Russia Planning Post-Invasion Campaign for Arrest and Killing in Ukraine, U.S. officials
Advice on possible targets shared with Ukraine and other regional partners.
By Amy Mackinnon, Robbie Gramer, and Jack Detsch
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky with troops
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrives for military training outside the city of Rivne, in northern Ukraine, in Feb. 16. ARIS MESSINIS / AFP / GETTY IMAGES
The United States has received a tip-off that Russia could target key political, anti-corruption, and Belarusian and Russian dissidents living in exile if it continues its plans to invade Ukraine, as US President Joe Biden warned on Thursday that the party's threat to Russia's renewed invasion of the country remains ". it's too high "and could happen in the next few days.
Four people familiar with US intelligence say Russia has compiled a list of Ukrainian political officials and other key individuals to be targeted for arrest or assassination should Russia attack Ukraine.
A fifth person, an American official who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the United States has been reducing its intelligence level with threats to certain Ukrainian groups to share this information with Ukrainian government officials and other regional partners willing to help.
Ukrainian Presidential spokesman Volodymyr Zelensky did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
"As we have seen in the past, we expect Russia to try to force cooperation through intimidation and repression," said an American official commenting on the nature of the disclosure clause.
The United States now believes that Russian President Vladimir Putin has decided to invade Ukraine, said US President Joe Biden.
"We have reason to believe that the Russian military is planning and intending to invade Ukraine next week, in the coming days," said Biden, who spoke shortly after making phone calls with heads of state from the European Union and NATO. Biden said the attack would target the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.
Biden 'warning, based on the discovery of non-public intelligence, is a sharp rise in United States' evaluation of Putin's plans. Until recently, US officials signed a statement saying they believed the Russian leader had not yet made a call for him to begin a renewed invasion of Ukraine. Earlier this week, Biden said there could be an attack and that Russia could attack "in a few days," but did not make it clear that Putin had made the decision.
Despite the warning, Biden said he was still hopeful that politics would emerge on the issue until the last point. "Until [he attacks], diplomacy is always possible," he said.
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