U.S. intelligence shows Russia's military pullback was a ruse, officials say
U.S. officials have obtained intelligence that Russia’s announced military pullback from Ukraine’s border was a deliberate ruse to mislead the United States and other world powers, four officials said Thursday, as President Biden offered a bleak warning that the Kremlin will launch an attack “in the next several days.”
The souring optimism that it would be possible to avoid conflict came just days after a flicker of hope, when Russian leaders signaled they would begin to draw down the more than 150,000 troops they have massed at Ukraine’s border. That announcement was accompanied by Kremlin-produced videos of what they claimed were tanks and other heavy equipment leaving border areas by rail car. U.S. officials now believe it was an effort to mask Russia’s true intentions in the region.
All four officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive intelligence.
Russian forces have continued to increase near Ukraine’s frontier, officials said, and shelling escalated in eastern Ukraine, adding to increasingly gloomy attitudes in Washington and European capitals that had hoped to forestall war. Russia is continuing military exercises in Belarus, in easy reach of Ukraine’s border, that intelligence officials fear could give the cover for an invasion. The exercises are due to end Sunday.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/02/17/ukraine-russia-putin-nato-munich/
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