U.S. President Joe Biden has warned the Ukrainian government there will be a full-scale Russian invasion of their country in the next 48 hours.
Biden warned Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of an ‘imminent’ attack by Vladimir Putin’s troops, just hours after Ukraine was hit by a ‘massive’ cyberattack targeting its government and banks.
A U.S. defence official said Putin’s military is ‘ready to go now’ with an invasion of Ukraine, with 80 per cent of Russian troops now assembled around the country in attack positions.
U.S. intelligence chiefs fear Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, is at particular risk of being targeted in a Russian invasion as it is close to the Ukrainian-Russian border.
Last night, a huge military convoy of more than 100 trucks with soldiers were heading in the direction of the city.
‘The President of Ukraine has been warned Russia will highly likely begin an invasion within 48 hours based on U.S. intelligence,’ a White House official told Newsweek.
Meanwhile, the websites of Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Security Service, and Cabinet of Ministers were all out of action Wednesday afternoon after a cyberattack.
Bomb threats were also phoned in to several government buildings, thought to be part of a psychological pressure campaign by Moscow.
Deputy prime minister Mykhailo Fedorov said banks were also targeted in a ‘massive’ distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack – which uses computer networks to bombard websites with information until they crash – in what analysts have warned would likely be the first stage of a Russian attack.
