Russia ‘masses 150k troops near NATO border’ as Ukraine warns of invasion | World | News
Russia may be preparing to target NATO countries with Belarus used as a launchpad in a possible attack, the president of Ukraine has warned.
Volodymyr Zelensky told an international security conference in Munich that Ukraine has a clear understanding of Russia‘s plans for Belarus.
He said: “Russia is preparing 15 divisions. Around 100-150,000 troops are being trained to aggravate the situation on the Belarus direction.
“I am not sure if they will attack Ukraine, but they will attack. Maybe Ukraine, maybe Poland, maybe the Baltic countries.”
His warning comes in the same week the Danish Defence Intelligence Service said Russia may seek to unleash a large scale war on Europe within five year if the Kremlin sees a NATO alliance which is “militarily weakened or politically divided”.
Belarus was used by Russia as a launchpad in February 2022 when Putin widened his war against Ukraine. Under the guise of military drills by Russian armed forces, thousands of troops amassed at the Belarussian-Ukrainian border before attacking Ukraine from the north.
Mr Zelensky’s warning comes amid intense concern and uncertainty over potential talks to end the Russia–Ukraine war and which countries will lead the negotiations.
US President Donald Trump this week announced Moscow and Washington had agreed to start negotiations to end the war in Ukraine “immediately”.
Mr Trump told reporters after the call that it was unlikely Ukraine would regain all the territory it lost since 2014, when Russia illegally annexed Crimea, but said he believed “some” of the land would “come back”.
The US leader also agreed with his Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, who told a NATO summit in Brussels that Ukraine was unlikely to join the military alliance, leading some to accuse the United States of throwing away a key bargaining chip in the negotiations.
Britain, France, and Germany have all insisted they must be a party to the negotiations, along with Ukraine, which the allies have said must enter talks from a position of strength.
Mr Zelensky has insisted he will only agree to meet Putin in person once a common approach has been negotiated with Mr Trump.
The Ukrainian leader also said he believes his US counterpart is the key to ending the Russia–Ukraine conflict, adding that Mr Trump gave him his telephone number before the opening of the Munich Security Conference on Friday (February 14).
He added that the United States never saw Ukraine as a NATO member, including under the Biden administration.
Meanwhile, hours before Mr Zelensky was set to meet US Vice President JD Vance in Munich, a Russian drone with a high-explosive warhead reportedly hit the protective confinement shell of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.
The Ukrainian president and the United Nation’s atomic agency said radiation levels have not increased. Mr Zelensky told reporters he thinks the drone strike is a “very clear greeting from Putin and [the] Russian Federation to the security conference”.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied Ukraine‘s claims.
