USS The Sullivans (DDG 68), USS Gonzalez (DDG 66), USS Donald Cook (DDG 75), and USS Mitscher (DDG 57) were stationed in the region, an unidentified defense official told CNN.

The editor of The Nation magazine, Katrina vanden Heuvel, warned in a recent interview that rising US tensions with Russia over Ukraine could plunge her country into war.

We are living in a time of pandemic, of racial division, of overwhelming economic inequality, of climate crisis, and going to war, or even contemplating these two new Cold Wars, both with Russia and with China, seems crazy to me, she said.

“More attention should be paid to seeing how we can get out of these conflicts (…) instead of all this rhetoric about more military deployment on the border,” added Ms. Vanden Heuvel.

Today is the announcement about the Doomsday Clock. Will it be closer to midnight, is it a danger? There is a lot of work to be done, instead of all this talk about war, war, war, troops, troops, troops, she stated.

Deputy spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry Alexei Zaitsev, on the other hand, stated that his country considers the idea of a war with Ukraine as unacceptable and strongly believes that without the so-called Western support the conflict would have been solved long ago.

mh/pll/ode/dfm