Latvia’s prime minister on Wednesday said Russian troops had moved into the eastern region of Ukraine.
“According to the information at my disposal, Putin is moving additional forces and tanks into the occupied Donbas territories,” Latvian Prime Minister Arturs Krišjānis Kariņš told CNN. “By any definition that’s a crossing of a sovereign territory into a neighboring country.”
When asked if the additional troops to which he was referring had entered Ukraine since Russian President Vladimir Putin announced he was recognizing as independent two regions in eastern Ukraine, Kariņš confirmed that it seemed to be the case.
“Yes, according to the information at my disposal, this is exactly what we’re seeing,” he said to the outlet.
Two other sources familiar with U.S. intelligence told CNN the troops Putin deployed for what he claimed was a peacekeeping mission had arrived in the Donbas region. A senior U.S. official added Moscow had one or two battalion tactical groups, which are each made up of roughly 800 troops.
Intelligence from both NATO allies and the U.S. has indicated that an attack is imminent, though a NATO official warned that “no one knows for sure” exactly what Putin’s plans look like, CNN added.
On Wednesday, a senior defense official told reporters at the Pentagon that Russian forces assembled along the border were “in what we would consider forward positions, ready to go” and added that the forces along the border were “near 100 percent of all forces” expected to be deployed.
The official added that Putin has a “full range of capabilities” already moved to the Ukrainian border, including “significant offensive missile capability,” “two dozen warships in the Black Sea” and “armor, artillery, certainly infantry.”
Though the U.S., the United Kingdom, the European Union, Canada and other countries have all imposed sanctions against Russia, President Biden has said the U.S. would “stand prepared to go further as with sanctions” in the event of further aggression.
“He is setting up a rationale to take more territory by force, in my view,” Biden said of Putin on Tuesday. “This is the beginning of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.”
