US warns Russia planning 'multi-front military invasion' of Ukraine in early 2022: Report

In shocking intelligence, the US officials on Friday said that they believe Russia is planning a ‘multi-front military invasion’ of Ukraine with 175,000 troops in early 2022, confirming the inside details outlined in a report Friday by The Washington Post. The US is taking recent signalling from the Kremlin very seriously as Russia concentrated heavy military on the volatile Moscow-Kyiv border, and does not consider the matter a bluff, officials told Fox News. Russia has deployed about 100,000 soldiers near its western border with Ukraine and in annexed Crimea, the head of Ukraine’s state security service informed Ukrainian reporters. 

The military troop buildup comes in the backdrop of escalating offensive and tensions between the Ukrainian soldiers and Russian-backed separatist forces on frontlines in Ukraine’s conflict-stricken eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk. Russian defence forces, in a show of military strength, have been conducting drills and exercises in the Black Sea region of Crimea.

The transatlantic security alliance NATO and the US have feared that the Moscow-Ukraine border, in recent weeks has witnessed Russia’s largest troop concentration since the annexation of Crimea. Biden administration, citing US intelligence report, raised an alarm about the “extensive movement of 100 battalion tactical groups with an estimated 175,000 personnel, along with armour, artillery, and equipment” on the Ukrainian border. 

A Pentagon official told FT that Moscow’s plans “call for a military offensive against Ukraine as soon as early 2022 with a scale of forces twice what we saw this past spring during Russia’s rapid military build-up near Ukraine’s borders”. Russia has already moved to establish a “ready reserve of contract reservists” to prepare to launch a military offensive against Kyiv, the said official stated. “We’ve been aware of Russia’s actions for a long time and my expectation is we’re going to have a long discussion,” US President Joe Biden told reporters, adding that he was in “constant contact” with European allies and Ukraine. 

“What I am doing is putting together what I believe  will be the most comprehensive and meaningful set of initiatives to make it very, very difficult for Mr. Putin to go ahead and do what people are worried he may do,” the US president told reporters. “But that’s in play right now,” the US leader stressed. 

Blinken warns Moscow may invade Ukraine 'on short order'

United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken earlier this week warned Moscow could move on Ukraine "on short order" noting that the allies of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) stands ready to impose "heavy" economic sanctions on Russia. Asserting that Russian President Vladimir Putin could 'quickly' order an invasion of Ukraine if "he had the pretext to do so," Blinken clarified that he doesn't know whether Putin has made a decision yet.  Speaking to the reporters on the sidelines of the NATO alliance foreign ministers meeting in Riga, Latvia, Blinken emphasized that the US will "respond resolutely" by implementing sanctions that "we've refrained from using in the past."

"We don’t know whether President Putin has made the decision to invade. We do know that he is putting in place the capacity to do so on short order should he so decide,” Blinken told reporters adding: “We must prepare for all contingencies.”

Image: AP