Ukraine’s president has said intelligence services uncovered a plot involving a group of Russians and Ukrainians to overthrow his government next week.
Speaking at an hours-long press conference, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukrainian intelligence had obtained audio recordings of the plotters discussing their plans, which he said involved tying to enlist the support of Ukraine’s richest man, Rinat Akhmetov.
“We have challenges not only from the Russian Federation and possible escalation – we have big internal challenges. I received information that a coup d’etat will take place in our country on December 1-2,” Zelenskiy said.
Akhmetov was not involved in the plot, Zelenskiy said. He gave no further details and did not accuse the Kremlin of playing a role. The Kremlin swiftly denied any involvement and Akhmetov said in a statement that “the information made public by Volodymyr Zelenskiy about attempts to draw me into some kind of coup is an absolute lie”.
He added: “I am outraged by the spread of this lie, no matter what the president’s motives are. My position has been and will be explicit and definite: an independent, democratic, and united Ukraine with the Crimea and my home region, Donbass. My actions live up to my words.”
Russia has been building up forces near its border with Ukraine, and Kyiv, the US and Nato have voiced concerns in recent days about a possible Russian attack – a suggestion the Kremlin has dismissed as false and alarmist.
“We are in full control of our borders and are fully prepared for any escalation,” Zelenskiy said. He did not give full details of the coup plot. Asked whether he thought the Kremlin was involved, he said: “I’m sorry, I can’t talk about it.”All options fraught with risk as Biden confronts Putin over UkraineRead more
But he also spoke at length in the press conference of a threat of Russian military escalation, and said Ukraine would be ready for it.
The Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, repeated western concerns about the buildup on Friday and warned that if Russia used force against Ukraine, “that will have costs, that will have consequences”.
Moscow has dismissed the accusations and blamed Washington for raising tensions in the region. The Kremlin has also accused Kyiv of “provocations” in its years-long conflict with pro-Russian separatists in two breakaway eastern regions.
In an attempt to set some red lines for Putin, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, have both spoken directly to him over the past two weeks. The British defence secretary, Ben Wallace, met his Ukrainian counterpart in Kyiv to provide a further promise of arms. Sweden’s defence minister said he was ready to send Swedish troops to Ukraine to help train the country’s military.
US intelligence officials and senior figures in Ukraine’s military have suggested as many as 92,000 Russian troops are massed to the north and east of Ukraine – many in the area around Yelnya, near Russia’s border with ally Belarus – and in Crimea, the peninsula that lies south of mainland Ukraine.
HD Editor’s Note: Why Is This News Biblically Relevant?
On Friday, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg commented on the estimated 90,000 Russian troops amassed along the countries border with Ukraine.
“This is the second time this year that Russia has amassed a large and unusual concentration of forces in the region,” he explained “This military buildup is unprovoked and unexplained. It raises tensions and it risks miscalculations.”
Stoltenberg added that “there is no certainty about the intentions of Russia” in its build-up of troops, tanks, drones, artillery, electronic warfare systems, and armored units 160 miles from the border. However, countries are taking the threat of possible invasion seriously because “this is a military buildup by a country that has invaded Ukraine before.”
Last week, a Russian anti-satellite “test” sparked controversy, when the country shot down one of its own satellites, which cause significant debris. The test came in close proximity to satellite imagery showing that Russia is amassing an estimated 90,000 troops close to its border with Ukraine.
The timing of Russia shooting down the satellite can easily be construed as a threatening response to the satellite imagery which was evidence of possible preparations of an invasion of Ukraine, which NATO called “aggressive.”
Tensions have also been further heightened in the region and many European countries have pointed the finger at Russian President Vladimir Putin for “manufacturing” the migrant crisis seen along the Belarus-Poland border.
On Tuesday, Russia and China bolstered their defense ties claiming that the United States has become a growing military threat that has increased tensions in the region.
They insisted that, due to US aggression, “in such an environment, the Russian-Chinese coordination becomes a stabilizing factor in global affairs.” Of course, it’s difficult to understand how these two countries, which have been the key provocateurs in global tension in recent months, can, through an alliance “become a stabilizing factor in global affairs.”
In Matthew 24, the disciples ask Jesus, “What shall be the sign of thy coming?” Jesus’s response is a detailed description of the condition of the world and what it will look like in the last days before His return. Wars and rumours of wars, nation rising against nation, famines, pestilences, earthquakes, these being the beginning of sorrows.
In Luke 21:25, Jesus says, “There will be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth Distress of Nations with Perplexity, the seas and the wave roaring. These things will be greatly increased and primarily take place during the seven-year Tribulation (from which the church is absent). However, with the current global state of turmoil amongst the nations, we can’t help but recognize the distress of nations Jesus describes in Luke 21 and Matthew 24, rising in our world today.
