According to Ukrainian, US, and western sources familiar with the situation, the US has warned the Ukrainian government that the newest intelligence points to Russia starting a full-scale invasion soon.
The US intelligence assessment comes as international leaders warn of an impending onslaught and claim that Russian forces are heading into eastern Ukraine's pro-Moscow territory. "Russia is at peak preparation to now complete a full-scale invasion of Ukraine," Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said during a media event in Australia on Tuesday evening eastern time.
Russia Moves Into Separatist Region
Morrison, whose nation is a part of the intelligence-sharing Five Eyes group, predicted it will happen "within the next 24 hours."
On Wednesday morning, the Prime Minister of Latvia, a NATO member, informed CNN that Russian forces had deployed into Ukraine's breakaway territory, which Russia has officially acknowledged as "autonomous." Later that day, the Pentagon confirmed that Russian troops had moved into the region.
Amid the warnings, as well as US President Joe Biden's assertions on Tuesday that the Russian invasion was underway, Ukraine's parliament authorized the government's proclamation of a state of emergency on Wednesday, which will take effect at midnight on Wednesday across the nation.
According to two other individuals familiar with US intelligence, additional Russian forces have crossed the border into the Donbas area since Putin recognized the two territories and issued an order deploying "peacekeepers" into the Donbas on Tuesday. Russia has sent one to two battalion tactical units, Russia's primary combat organization, each with an average of approximately 800 personnel, according to a senior US official familiar with the latest intelligence, CNN reported.
Putin Urges Ukraine to Drop NATO Bid
According to two top European security sources, Russian mercenaries with experience fighting in Syria and Libya have infiltrated two rebel regions in eastern Ukraine, laying the framework for war.
The mercenaries, who number over 300, are affiliated with the Russian paramilitary outfit Wagner and came in the rebel strongholds of Donetsk and Luhansk dressed in civilian clothes. According to one of the officers, they were followed from Libya and Syria and landed in Russian-controlled Crimea, from where they trickled into the opposition territory.
They are little in comparison to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia's estimated 190,000 troops stationed along Ukraine's border as he threatens to launch what many fear would be Europe's worst battle since World War II.
The presence of Wagner fighters, on the other hand, is another ominous sign of impending war, and it raises the possibility that Putin will repeat the strategy used in eastern Ukraine in 2014, when the Kremlin deployed Russian mercenaries, mostly veterans of the Russian military, to supplement rebel fighters' forces, as per New York Times.
According to a study, half of Russians feel it would be appropriate for Russia to use military action against Ukraine to keep the nation out of NATO. Fears are growing that Vladimir Putin will launch a full-scale war on Ukraine in the following days, with US information predicting that the lethal action will occur within the next 48 hours.
Putin stated that the problem could only be addressed if Ukraine abandons its NATO bid, declares neutrality, demilitarizes, and engages separatists in negotiations. The West has already stated unequivocally that Ukraine should not be excluded from NATO indefinitely.
Despite Putin's deployment of 190,000 troops to the Ukrainian border and Western intelligence reports that the forces are "ready to go" in an attack, only 13% of Russians questioned believe Russia would use military action against Ukraine, while 75% do not. The study was conducted in early February, just before Putin declared two separatist regions in eastern Ukraine autonomous and dispatched troops there, according to Daily Mail.
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