American media: Putin has already ordered to invade Ukraine | Abroad

Biden said on Friday he expected the Russians to carry out the raid “within the next few days or week.” US media reported on Sunday that the Biden administration had “solid information” that Russian President Vladimir Putin had indeed already ordered his troops on the border with Ukraine to implement the invasion plans.

According to the information, The New York Times that “40–50% of the more than 150,000 Russian troops along the Ukrainian border have meanwhile gotten into combat formation and can launch an attack within days”.

Part of the troops would be made up of Russian reservists, who could be deployed as occupation forces after an invasion. According to US media, the government sources on which they base their reporting did not provide further details of the intelligence, but they stress that it is highly reliable information.

French President Emmanuel Macron and Putin had another hour of phone conversations late Sunday evening about the situation in Ukraine. It was their second meeting of the day, the French government reports, after the two leaders also held talks for nearly two hours earlier on Sunday in a bid to prevent armed conflict in Ukraine.

After this first meeting, the two presidents stressed the need to continue to seek diplomatic solutions to the escalating crisis in eastern Ukraine, the Kremlin said in a statement. According to the French Elysee Palace, Putin and Macron also agreed on Sunday morning to work for a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine.

Just before the first meeting with Putin, Macron also spent half an hour on the phone with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky and discussed possible ways to effect immediate de-escalation.

Exactly what Putin and Macron discussed during their second meeting on Sunday evening has yet to be announced.