Russia has up to 190,000 military personnel in and near Ukraine, US claims
Russia’s build-up of military personnel in and near borders of Ukraine probably totals up to 190,000, the U.S. ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation (OSCE) in Europe said in a statement during the OSCE meeting on Ukraine crisis.
“We assess that Russia probably has massed between 169,000-190,000 personnel in and near Ukraine as compared with about 100,000 on January 30,” Michael Carpenter told the OSCE meeting on Friday.
The estimates come from troops counted in Belarus and Crimea as well as the Russian National Guard and Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine, among other security units.
“This is the most significant military mobilization in Europe since the Second World War,” Carpenter stated.
“We are aware that Russia is intent on creating a pretext to justify an invasion into Ukraine. We have reports from multiple sources that provide detail on Russia’s efforts to fabricate supposed ‘Ukrainian provocations’ and shape a public narrative that would justify a Russian invasion,” he warned.
He said that several weeks ago, United States acquired information that the Russian government was planning to stage a fabricated attack by Ukrainian military or security forces against Russian sovereign territory, or against Russian-speaking people in separatist-controlled territory, to justify military action against Ukraine. And then there was a visible an uptick in cyber operations against Ukraine’s defense and banking sectors.
“Therefore, we must resolutely rebut the false narrative about a Ukrainian “escalation,” which finds no evidence whatsoever in the reports of the OSCE’s Special Monitoring Mission. We must stay vigilant about the possibility of a false-flag operation to spuriously justify an attack.”
Meanwhile, Russia has announced massive nuclear drills amid Western fears that Moscow might be preparing to invade Ukraine. The Russian Defense Ministry said Russian President Vladimir Putin will personally oversee Saturday’s exercise, which will involve multiple practice launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles and cruise missiles.
On Friday, the head of the Russia-backed separatist states in Ukraine has announced a mass evacuation of citizens amid fears of plan to trigger invasion. Denis Pushilin, the head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, announced that he believed Ukraine was planning to attack the separatist state and said he would begin a mass evacuation of its citizens to Russia on Friday. The Luhansk People’s Republic, another Russian-backed separatist state, announced similar plans.
