The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the United States, which estimates the number of Russian forces currently deployed in northern, eastern and southern Ukraine at more than 150,000, has monitored since Wednesday the movements of Russian forces towards the border..
He added in front of reporters that “between 40 and 50%” of these forces took an “offensive position (…) they were deployed in tactical assembly points in the past 48 hours.“.
Tactical assembly points are areas close to the front line where a military unit can gather before launching an attack.
On Friday, the official said, Moscow had 125 military battalions near the Ukrainian border, compared to 60 in normal times and 80 in early February..
He noted that the high frequency of clashes between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian forces, and the inflammatory statements made by the Kremlin and pro-Russian separatist leaders regarding the situation in the Russian-speaking Donbass and Lugansk regions, are consistent with the “current destabilization campaign of Ukraine”“.
Washington has been warning for weeks that Russia will fabricate an incident on the Ukrainian border to justify the invasion of its neighbor, which Moscow denies..
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told ABC that Russian President Vladimir Putin had gathered the elements “necessary for a successful invasion.”“.
“I don’t think it’s a hoax,” he said in an excerpt broadcast Friday from an interview to be broadcast Sunday. He added that Putin “has a number of options at his disposal and can attack in a short time.”“.