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Russian tanks in eastern Ukraine (March 6)
Photo: ALEXANDER ERMOCHENKO / REUTERS
For weeks and months, Russian army troop movements near Ukraine had caused concern in Kyiv and the west.
With the conflict now openly escalating, the question remained how many of these units would actually be sent across the border to attack.
This question has now been answered, at least from the point of view of the USA.
According to US information, Russia has moved into the country with almost all the troops planned for the invasion.
"Almost 100 percent" of the "combat force" that has been massed on the Ukrainian border in recent weeks is now in Ukraine, US Defense Department spokesman John Kirby said on Monday.
According to Western sources, Russia deployed more than 150,000 troops at the borders before beginning its attack on Ukraine.
"He has almost all of them inside," the Pentagon official said, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Kirby also confirmed a US media report that Russia wants to recruit Syrian fighters for house-to-house fighting in Ukraine.
"We know they're trying to recruit Syrians to fight."
Kirby said it was "remarkable" that Putin felt it necessary to rely on foreign fighters despite the large number of Russian soldiers in Ukraine.
It is unclear how many fighters Russia wants to recruit or has already recruited.
The Wall Street Journal had previously reported on the Russian recruiting campaign.
Ground forces reportedly made no significant progress
Kirby said that apart from forays into southern Ukraine, Russian ground forces "haven't made any real progress to speak of in the past few days."
Accordingly, Moscow is increasingly using bombs and rockets to compensate for the lack of success of the ground forces.
"We believe" that the Russian army has "morale, supply, fuel and food problems," Kirby said, again citing "strong Ukrainian resistance."
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin also ordered an additional 500 troops to be sent to Europe, according to Kirby.
The soldiers were intended to strengthen NATO's "deterrence and defense capabilities."
The US normally has around 67,000 troops stationed permanently in Europe.
There are also units that are sent to Europe for several months and then continue to rotate.
In recent weeks, the United States has stationed almost 15,000 additional troops in the eastern NATO countries.
Also, the rotation intervals of troops in Europe have been increased.
This means that there are currently around 100,000 US soldiers in Europe.
A total of 2,500 US soldiers were stationed in the three Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, 10,000 in Poland, 2,400 in Romania, 1,500 in Slovakia, 350 in Bulgaria and 200 in Hungary.
jok/AFP
