The United States said on Wednesday February 9 that Russia was continuing to strengthen its military presence on the borders of Ukraine, at a time when France claims to have pledges from the Kremlin so that there is no "
escalation
" additional.
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“
We have continued to observe, including in the past 24 hours, additional capabilities pouring in from other parts of Russia towards the border with Ukraine and Belarus
,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told the Times. during a press briefing.
“
We will not give specific numbers but they continue to increase
,” he added, reporting a total of “
over 100,000
” men now present.
"
We also see signs that other battle groups are on the way
," continued the spokesman for the US Department of Defense.
3,000 US soldiers deployed
Russian President Vladimir Putin “
continues to strengthen his
military capabilities”, he stressed.
“
Every day he gives himself more options, every day he strengthens his capacities, every day he continues to destabilize what is already a very tense situation
”.
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The spokesman recalled that the United States had no intention of carrying out any operations in Ukraine, a non-NATO member country, while the first of the 3,000 American soldiers sent to "
reassure
" the allies from NATO's eastern flank have begun to deploy in Poland and Romania.
They could potentially participate in relief operations if U.S. nationals residing in Ukraine were to flood into those countries in the event of a Russian invasion, but that shouldn't be necessary, John Kirby noted.
The United States has been warning for several weeks that it has no intention of militarily evacuating Americans from Ukraine as it did in Kabul last summer.
Washington accuses Moscow of preparing a potential large-scale invasion of Ukraine in the very short term, even if US officials believe that Vladimir Putin has not yet made a decision whether or not to go on the offensive.
The French head of state met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Monday, then his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday in Kiev.
Emmanuel Macron assured to have received pledges from the Russian president so that there is no additional "
escalation
", and Paris affirms that this visit made it possible to "
move forward
" to appease the situation.