WASHINGTON: More than 40 percent of Russian forces on the Ukrainian border are now in a position for attacks and Moscow has started a destabilized campaign, a US defense official said on Friday.
The United States, which estimates that Russia has placed more than 150,000 soldiers near the Ukrainian border, has observed significant movements since Wednesday, the official said, insisted on anonymity.
“Forty to fifty percent is in the position of attack. They have been unlucky in the tactical assembly in the last 48 hours,” the official told reporters.
Tactical assembly points are areas next to the border where military units are established before the attack.
The official said Moscow had grown 125 tactical battalion groups close to the Ukrainian border, compared with 60 in normal time and rose from 80 in early February.
Increased clashes between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian government forces in the Southeast Donbas region of Ukraine, and inflammatory claims by officials in Russia and Donbas, showed that “the destabilization campaign has begun,” the official said, “the official said.
Washington has warned for weeks that Russia can provoke or make incidents in the area to function as a pretext to attack Ukraine.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told ABC News’ “this week” that Russian President Vladimir Putin “has a number of choices available to him and he can attack in a short time.”
“I can’t believe it is snapping,” said Austin, added, “I think he gathered … the things you need to do a successful invasion.”
Moscow denied that he had a plan to attack his Western neighbors, but demanded assurance that Ukraine would never join NATO and that the Western alliance removed the strength of Eastern Europe, demanding the West has refused.
In 2014, Russia stormed and occupied the Crimean region in Ukraine, utilizing sympathetic separatists.