Reports Russian commanders given green light to invade Ukraine

Kremlin reportedly approves attack as Australia gives cyber security aid to Ukraine.

Blinken said that Biden was “prepared to meet President Putin at any time in any format if that can help prevent a war” and the US official said Macron had then conveyed the offer of talks to Putin — conditioned on Russia not invading — in his phone calls with the Russian leader.

Praying for peace

In Kyiv, life outwardly continued as usual for many on a mild winter Sunday, with brunches and church services, ahead of what Biden said late last week was an already decided Russian attack.

Katerina Spanchak, who fled a region of eastern Ukraine when it was taken over by Russian-allied separatists, was among worshippers crowded into the capital’s St Michael’s monastery, smoky with the candles burned by the faithful, to pray that Ukraine be spared.

“We all love life, and we are all united by our love of life,” Spanchak said, pausing to compose herself. “We should appreciate it every day. That’s why I think everything will be fine.”

Maximum tension

“When tension is escalated to the maximum, as it is now, for example, on the line of contact, then any spark, any unplanned incident or any minor planned provocation can lead to irreparable consequences,” Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said in an interview that aired on Russian state television.

A US official said that Biden’s assertion that Putin has made the decision to roll forces into Ukraine was based on intelligence that Russian front-line commanders have been given orders to begin final preparations for an attack. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the sensitive intelligence.

Satellite pictures show multiple new field deployments of armoured equipment and troops in Russia near the border with Ukraine, according to satellite imagery from US company Maxar.

“This new activity represents a change in the pattern of the previously observed deployments of battle groups (tanks, armoured personnel carriers, artillery and support equipment),” Maxar said.

‘Kill list’ fears

The Washington Post obtained a copy of a letter the US sent to the United Nations human rights chief Michelle Bachelet on Sunday night (Monday AEDT) that said Russia was compiling lists of Ukrainians “to be killed or sent to camps following a military occupation”

The letter, sent by Bathsheba Crocker, the US ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, said Russia’s targets would include Russian and Belarusian dissidents in exile in Ukraine, journalists and anti-corruption activists, and “vulnerable populations such as religious and ethnic minorities and LGBTQI+ persons”.

Media reported ongoing shelling in Russia-backed separatist areas. CNN quoted the Ukrainian Joint Forces Command saying the “heavy armament fire” is directed on the separatists’ own territory in an effort to “falsely accuse” Ukraine of starting the exchange.

“We’re talking about the potential for war in Europe,” US Vice President Kamala Harris said earlier Sunday at a security conference in Munich, Germany, that saw urgent consultations among world leaders on the crisis. “It’s been over 70 years, and through those 70 years … there has been peace and security.”

The US embassy in Russia cautioned Americans on Sunday (Monday AEDT) to have evacuation plans, citing the threat of attacks in Moscow and along the Russian border with Ukraine.

“There have been threats of attacks against shopping centres, railway and metro stations, and other public gathering places in major urban areas, including Moscow and St. Petersburg as well as in areas of heightened tension along the Russian border with Ukraine,” the embassy said.

‘They’re shooting at us now’

Officials in the separatist territories of Lugansk and Donetsk claimed Ukrainian forces launched several artillery attacks over the past day and that two civilians were killed during an unsuccessful assault on a village near the Russian border. Ukraine’s military said two soldiers died in firing from the separatist side on Saturday.

On the front lines, Ukrainian soldiers said they were under orders not to return fire. Zahar Leshushun, peering into the distance with a periscope, had followed the news all day from a trench where he is posted near the town of Zolote.

“Right now, we don’t respond to their fire because …” the soldier said before the sound of an incoming shell interrupted him. “Oh! They are shooting at us now. They are aiming at the command post.”