President Biden met with the National Security Council Sunday to discuss the threat of war in Ukraine as officials warn that Moscow is stepping up its disinformation campaign in a bid to create a pretext for a military attack that the president has warned could come “in the coming days.”
The NSC meeting lasted a little over two hours, with Vice President Harris calling in from Air Force Two on her way back to Washington from Munich, an administration official said.
Meanwhile, Belarus’s defense minister extended military exercises with Russian forces that were otherwise set to end Sunday, and he announced a joint task force to “fight back if necessary.”
The announcement that Russian forces would not return to base as planned contradicted the country’s previous assertion that not a single Russian troop or piece of equipment would remain after the drill. Before the exercise began 10 days ago, Western military analysts warned that it could be cover for an attack force to invade Ukraine from the north and potentially encircle the capital Kyiv.
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