The US and its allies have new intelligence that suggests Russia could launch an attack on Ukraine even before the end of the Olympics, multiple sources familiar with the matter tell CNN.
Previous assessments had suggested that Russia was unlikely to move into Ukraine until after the Olympics end on Feb. 20, US officials had told CNN in the past. The revelation of the new intelligence comes as administration officials have dramatically ramped up the urgency of their public warnings related to Ukraine in the past 24 hours.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday that a Russian invasion of Ukraine "could begin at any time," including during the Beijing Winter Olympics, and the United States continues "to see very troubling signs of Russian escalation, including new forces arriving at the Ukrainian border."
Kyiv is among the targets identified in the Russian planning, three sources familiar with the new intelligence tell CNN.
There are ongoing conversations within the administration about declassifying some of that new intelligence, which two US officials said may come later on Friday.
President Biden on Friday morning was set to hold a call with NATO and European allies to discuss the latest intelligence, a White House official told CNN. A European defense official said the North Atlantic Council will be discussing the situation and the new intelligence in a meeting later Friday.
Biden also joined a meeting of his top national security advisers Thursday evening in the White House Situation Room to discuss the crisis, a person familiar with the meeting said.
When asked about new intelligence, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian defense minister said that such warnings have been heard already.
“Again? These statements have already been heard,” Iryna Zolotar, press secretary for Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov, told CNN.
CNN's Alex Marquardt and Mick Krever contributed reporting to this post.
Jango214 on February 11st, 2022 at 22:29 UTC »
In years gone by, nations spent months going through intelligence and decoding communications to find out when the enemy will make it's move.
And today, we are reading it on Twitter that Putin is gonna go in the next two days.
Amazing
impatientimpasta on February 11st, 2022 at 19:13 UTC »
I have the solution: perpetual Olympics.
Savoir_faire81 on February 11st, 2022 at 19:02 UTC »
Combine this with the articles about the Emergency meeting at the WH this morning.
"Joe Biden has held a hastily-arranged call with other Nato and EU leaders"
"Biden’s call to allies followed a situation room meeting at the White House to discuss the latest intelligence on the Russian military build-up"
"A European diplomat said that the US had asked for the urgent call with Nato allies and the heads of the EU council and commission, because “it seems like they have some new intelligence they want to share that has made them skittish”.
Of note there also seems to have been an uptick in countries ordering embassy and civilian evacuations from Ukraine today. Japan, South Korea, Israel, UK, couple others.
Doesn't take much to put it together. They think there is credible intelligence that the invasion has been given the go ahead.