ENGL 1154 English Subject College TCC

U.S. warns that Russia has a 'kill list' of Ukrainians to be detained or killed :
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U.S. warns that Russia has a 'kill list' of Ukrainians to be detained or killed If
Russia invades, "there will be an even greater form of brutality because this will
not simply be some conventional war between two armies," President Biden's national
security adviser says.
Europe
The U.S. warns that Russia has a 'kill list' of Ukrainians to be detained or killed
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Updated February 21, 202211:24 AM ET
Originally published February 21, 20229:20 AM ET
Bill Chappell
Twitter
Enlarge this image
People walk past anti-tank barriers in the town of Avdiivka, on the eastern Ukraine
front-line with Russia-backed separatists. The Ukrainian government said
separatists have sharply increased their shelling attacks in the eastern part of
the country.
Aleksey Filippov/AFP via Getty Images
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Aleksey Filippov/AFP via Getty Images
People walk past anti-tank barriers in the town of Avdiivka, on the eastern Ukraine
front-line with Russia-backed separatists. The Ukrainian government said
separatists have sharply increased their shelling attacks in the eastern part of
the country.
Aleksey Filippov/AFP via Getty Images
The U.S. has sent a letter to the U.N. warning that Russia has created a "kill
list" of Ukrainians to be attacked or detained if it invades the country, according
to White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan. He said it's a sign of how
brutal and violent events could become if Russia invades Ukraine. The U.S. has
intelligence that suggests "there will be an even greater form of brutality because
this will not simply be some conventional war between two armies," Sullivan said on
the NBC's Today show on Monday morning.
"It will be a war waged by Russia on the Ukrainian people to repress them, to crush
them, to harm them. And that is what we laid out in detail for the U.N.," he said.
The National Security Advisor to President Biden, @jakejsullivan, joins us to
discuss the Ukraine crisis. pic.twitter.com/xaWogFyPID— TODAY (@TODAYshow) February
21, 2022
The U.S. says Russia is preparing to suppress resistance Russia has repeatedly said
it doesn't plan to invade Ukraine — a country it invaded in 2014, when it illegally
annexed Crimea. Despite its denials, Russia has done little to reassure people in
Ukraine and beyond that it respects its neighbor's sovereignty. The U.S. said
Russia's military continued to build up its force along the Ukrainian border over
the weekend, the latest in a string of provocations that the White House said
points to an imminent invasion.
"We believe that any military operation of this size, scope and magnitude of what
we believe the Russians are planning will be extremely violent," Sullivan said. "It
will cost the lives of Ukrainians and Russians, civilians and military personnel
alike." The list reportedly names people whom Russian authorities would order to be
killed or sent to camps. Sullivan said the plan is part of Russia's strategy for
occupying a country whose people don't want to be under Russian control. The list
is said to include journalists, activists, ethnic and religious minorities, and
LGBTQ Ukrainians. Other likely targets include opponents of Russia's strategic
goals and dissidents from Russia and Belarus who have taken refuge in Ukraine.
Among Ukraine's citizens, there are both doubts and concerns about Russia's plans.
"Most Ukrainians don't think Russia will invade," NPR's Frank Langfitt reports from
Kyiv. "They think it would be catastrophic not only for Ukraine, but also for
President Putin and Russia. And instead, they see this kind of pressure in what's
happening in the East and all of these troops as a way to continue to damage the
country, and pressure [it] to align with Russia instead of the West. The West is
really where most people here see their nation's future."
Bathsheba Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. office in Geneva, sent a letter
about the list to the U.N. human rights chief in Geneva, according to The New York
Times. The letter warned that Russia is planning to commit human right abuses if
and when it invades Ukraine — a campaign that would bring "widespread human
suffering," Crocker wrote. So, what does Putin want? "Putin's been clear about what
he has wanted this whole time, and we've been clear in rejecting it," Sen. Chris
Coons, D-Del., told NPR on Monday. Coons later added, "He's demanded that we pull
all NATO forces back to the line before the Warsaw Pact fell apart. And many of the
[former] Warsaw Pact nations joined NATO decades ago." The Warsaw Pact was a
Soviet-era treaty with Central and Eastern European counties to serve as
counterweight to NATO.
The end of the Cold War brought historic growth for NATO. The Czech Republic,
Hungary and Poland joined in 1999. Seven more countries followed suit in 2004,
including Latvia and Estonia, which share a border with Russia, and Lithuania,
which borders Belarus and Kaliningrad, the Russian exclave along the Baltic Sea.
Many of Putin's demands "frankly are ridiculous," said Coons, who was one of 23
U.S. lawmakers at the Munich Security Conference over the weekend. Much of the
conference revolved around Ukraine and potential sanctions against Russia, which
Coons predicted would be "devastating." Despite the impasse, Coons said he sees
areas of potential agreement among Russia, the U.S. and NATO. Putin is "looking for
some things that we could provide: a guarantee that there aren't going to be
Western missiles based in Ukraine, for example, [and] more transparency around
conventional forces and exercises," the senator said. Coons said that if Putin is
"willing to accept an off-ramp to more detailed negotiations about arms control and
transparency, I think that's something President Biden can and should embrace." If
a Biden-Putin summit happens, Coons said, it could give Putin a face-saving option
to scale back his escalation and aggression toward Ukraine. But he also warned that
the U.S. shouldn't simply give in to Russia's insistence that Ukraine should not —
and will never — join NATO. "That's a question that impacts the sovereignty of the
Ukrainian people," Coons said. "They've put into their constitution that they
intend to join NATO. And NATO can't just shut the door on Ukraine unilaterally, nor
should we, in response to Russian bullying or threats. So Putin's going to have to
be willing to accept something other than a closing of the door to NATO membership
for Ukraine." Macron brokers a potential summit, as artillery attacks build The
Ukrainian government said Russian-backed separatists have sharply increased their
shelling attacks on the eastern province of Donbas over the past four days, with at
least two Ukrainian soldiers dead and five injured. U.S. Secretary of State Antony
Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov are expected to meet on
Thursday, when they would discuss a potential summit meeting between Biden and
Putin.
As news of the potential summit reached Ukraine, Langfitt reported, "anything that
doesn't involve an invasion is always welcome here." But, he added, Ukrainians are
also concerned about being trapped in the middle of a dispute between the U.S. and
its allies and Russia, over the future of security in Europe. Biden said on Friday
that he believes Putin is resolved to invade Ukraine. But the White House said on
Sunday that Biden is open to the idea of a meeting with Putin, as long as he
doesn't send his forces into Ukraine. The potential summit is backed by French
President Emmanuel Macron, who has spoken to Putin twice in 24 hours, the Kremlin
said. Macron also called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, U.K. Prime
Minister Boris Johnson and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. "We are always ready for
diplomacy," White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement on Sunday.
"We are also ready to impose swift and severe consequences should Russia instead
choose war. And currently, Russia appears to be continuing preparations for a full-
scale assault on Ukraine very soon."
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