in the vanguard against ukraine continuing to be at the border, to amass at the border. reporter: this morning i m told by a senior u.s. official that the u.s. is watching the donbas region of ukraine very closely, making claims of ethnic crimes there. they recognize the region as independence has the u.s. fearing russia may use this as a pretext to further invade eastern ukraine. and there s new exclusive reporting. according to the intelligence assessments, the ukranian government believes that russia does not have enough troops near its border to effectively invade this country. senior chief correspondent clarissa ward is with me in kyiv, of course barbara starr standing by. first to you, clarissa. the ukranian military once again, frankly, on a somewhat different page of the military
if we actually do start to see troops leaving belarus, but that s a big if, jim. it certainly is a big if, and belarus is in the camp now. it s been formally subjugaed by president putin. russia has the ability, in effect, to invade this country from three sides, at least potentially, if putin were to go that way. one thing i do think we should pay attention to, because in the last 24 to 48 hours, just a lot of comments, allegations being made about the donbas in eastern ukraine, putin claiming outrageously a genocide there. the russian parliament giving him the ability to recognize it. we re hearing more headlines now about allegations of violence and shelling going on there, and the u.s. concern as we discussed, bianna, is that russia might use that as a
particular region of ukraine, and that is the donbas. you noticed, you heard the russian president outrageously use the term genocide in relation to his claims that there are crimes being committed against ethnic russians, but also at the same time that the russian donbas, as you know, is wanting to be recognized as independent. i m concerned that russia would use those claims as a pretext either to formally slice off another piece of ukraine or carry out military action there. do you share that concern? that s precisely our concern for two reasons. number one, we know the history well. we know what happened in 2014. russia manufactured a pretext, used that pretext to agress against ukraine in a way that has had longlasting implications for ukraine. but number two, we are concerned based on what we know, based on an array of information that russia will seek told the same thing here, essentially
ISTANBUL, Turkey Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will ask Russian leader Vladimir Putin to be an "architect of peace" and stop the war in Ukraine, Turkish media reported Friday. Erdogan, who has been trying to broker peace between Moscow and Kyiv, made the comments while returning from a
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will ask Russian leader Vladimir Putin to be an "architect of peace" and stop the war in Ukraine, Turkish media reported Friday.