Washington is bracing itself for an exodus of refugees fleeing Ukraine in the event of a Russian incursion, the White House has announced as tensions remain high in Eastern Europe.
Speaking at a briefing on Tuesday, President Joe Biden’s spokeswoman Jen Psaki touched on preparations that American officials are making in case Moscow’s armed forces stage an incursion into its neighbor.
“We certainly prepare for a range of contingencies, and work and engage with our European partners and counterparts to prepare for them,” she explained. “And that relates to the potential for refugees; it relates to the potential for natural gas or oil shortages.”
However, she refused to delve deeper into “intelligence assessments” cited by the Washington Post last weekend, which alleged that a Russian invasion could result in millions of people becoming displaced and leave thousands of civilians dead.
According to the outlet, US officials had briefed lawmakers and European partners on new estimates claiming that Russia had amassed more forces near the border with Ukraine and could soon launch an attack that would reach Kiev in just two days, killing 50,000 people and causing up to five million refugees to run from the turmoil.
Commenting on Washington’s hasty evacuations from Afghanistan last summer, Psaki insisted that “it’s really important to separate the two. Because, first, we are not in a 20-year war with US troops in Ukraine. That’s a very different circumstance.”