Russia is massing even more troops near Ukraine and an invasion could happen at any time, perhaps before the end of the Winter Olympics in China, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday. .
Commercial satellite images published by a private US company showed new Russian military detachments at various locations near Ukraine.
In his harshest warning yet to Americans in Ukraine to leave now, President Joe Biden said he would not send troops to rescue US citizens in the event of a Russian attack.
“Things can go crazy fast,” Biden told NBC News.
Blinken, visiting Australia, told a news conference: “We are in a window where an invasion can start at any time and, to be clear, that includes during the Olympics.”
The Beijing games end on February 20.
“Simply put, we continue to see very worrying signs of Russia escalating, including new forces arriving at the Ukrainian border,” Blinken said.
Russia has already assembled more than 100,000 troops near Ukraine and this week carried out joint military exercises in neighboring Belarus and naval exercises in the Black Sea.
Moscow denies plans to invade Ukraine but says it could take unspecified “military-technical” action unless a series of demands are met, including NATO pledges never to admit Ukraine and withdrawal of forces from Eastern Europe. .
Several Western countries launched diplomatic efforts this week to persuade Russia to back down, but Moscow ignored them, making zero concessions to French President Emmanuel Macron, who paid a visit on Monday, and openly mocking British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, during a visit on Thursday.
Four-party talks in Berlin between Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France, part of a long-running peace process in a conflict between Ukraine and Russian-backed separatists, also failed to yield progress on Thursday.
Paris said the Russian delegation had agreed to hold further talks but demanded that Kiev negotiate directly with the separatists, a “red line” that Ukraine has rejected since 2014.
U.S.-based Maxar Technologies, which tracks the buildup of Russian forces, said images taken on Wednesday and Thursday showed new deployments at various locations in western Russia, Belarus and Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014.
The images could not be independently verified by Reuters.
In Crimea, Maxar identified 550 troop tents and hundreds of newly installed vehicles at Oktyabrskoye airfield, north of the city of Simferopol, as well as deployments near the cities of Novoozernoye and Slavne.
In Belarus, a new deployment of troops, military vehicles and helicopters was identified at Zyabrovka airfield near Gomel, less than 25 km from the border with Ukraine.
And in western Russia a large new detachment of troops and forces was found in the Kursk training area, approximately 110 km east of the Ukrainian border.
Russia has not disclosed how many troops it has sent and says it has the right to move forces into its territory as it sees fit. The country insists they pose no external threat.
Source: CNN Brasil
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