The Biden administration on Friday escalated its warnings about a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine, saying it could take place within days.
The White House said it doesn’t know if Russian President Vladimir Putin has made a decision to invade. But, it said Putin has assembled all the elements to do so quickly and told Americans in Ukraine to leave within the next 48 hours.
The stark warning accelerated the projected timeframe for a potential invasion. Many analysts believed Putin was unlikely to act until after the Winter Olympics in China end on Feb. 20.
(We want to know: Do you know anyone living in the region who is affected by the crisis? Are you aware of someone who was forced to leave, or must get out?)
Major General Doug Burnett is the former Adjutant General of the Florida National Guard.
While satellite images show combat arms on the ground, tanks, armored personnel carriers and the like, Burnett says something’s missing.
“When you send in a ground army, you’ve got to have a logistics tail to it, but I don’t see ambulances. I don’t see the trucks that would have tentage and those kind of things,” Burnett said. “You can’t just sleep out in the snow for a couple of weeks. And remember last time, this thing went on for a while. So yes, they could go in right now, but I don’t see that because the combat service support is not there.”
Florida National Guard personnel are in Ukraine, training members of their army.
While Burnett sounds confident that Americans will not join a war in the region, he also understands the call for Americans to leave Ukraine.
“Russia could go in tomorrow. Again, not looking at long term battle, but we could have Americans in harm’s way. Time to get them out. Even if it’s two, three weeks,” Burnett said. “Their interest is served here, so are ours. We don’t want to tripwire. Killing Americans could be a tripwire.”
Is there a diplomatic end to this stand-off? Burnett says the situation seems primed for a compromise where Russia’s president saves face and Ukraine stays out of NATO. That seems to be a main point of contention in the crisis.