The glimmer of optimism that greeted Russia’s announcement that it was pulling troops back from the Ukrainian border looks to have been extinguished. A senior American official has reportedly accused the Kremlin of lying about its withdrawal, saying that Russia has actually sent 7,000 more troops to the border with Ukraine.
The claim, reported by The New York Times, was then backed up by British officials who said Russia was bolstering defenses with helicopter and armored vehicle units. “Contrary to their claims, Russia continues to build up military capabilities near Ukraine,” Lt. Gen. Jim Hockenhull, the British chief of defense intelligence, said in a statement. “Russia has the military mass in place to conduct an invasion of Ukraine.” Western officials say they believe Russia has massed an estimated 150,000 troops on three sides of Ukraine.
“Contrary to their claims, Russia continues to build up military capabilities near Ukraine,” Lt. Gen. Jim Hockenhull, the British chief of defense intelligence, said in a statement. “Russia has the military mass in place to conduct an invasion of Ukraine.”
The Western warnings contrasted sharply with Russia’s attempts to show that it was de-escalating.
Only hours earlier, the Russian Defense Ministry had released a video of a military convoy departing Crimea over the 12-mile bridge to Russia that President Vladimir V. Putin ordered built after the peninsula’s 2014 annexation. And the Kremlin’s spokesman praised the United States for being willing to negotiate and for offering constructive ideas.
The Daily Beast and the NYT