Russia ‘70 per cent ready for invasion of Ukraine’ as first US troops arrive in Poland

Elly Blake6 February 2022

Russia has 70 per cent of the military capability needed for an invasion of Ukraine, according to US officials.

Freezing weather expected in mid-February could see the ground harden, allowing Russian troops to bring in heavier equipment for a full-scale invasion in the coming weeks, the unnamed officials said.

More than 100,000 troops have assembled themselves near to Ukraine’s border, but Vladimir Putin denies an attack is imminent.

The officials who gave the 70 per cent figure did not provide any evidence for their conclusion but said it was based on intelligence, it has been reported in US media.

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A US Air Force transport plane transporting military equipment and troops is unloaded at Poland’s Rzeszow-Jasionka airport on Sunday
AFP via Getty Images

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan has told US media that Russia could invade Ukraine within days or weeks but could still opt for a diplomatic path forward.

Two anonymous US officials told Reuters that freezing weather conditions on the border would give Russian troops a peak window to move equipment between mid-February and the end of March.

According to reports, the sources forecast that an attack could result in as many as 50,000 civilian deaths.

They also said an invasion could see Kiev, Ukraine’s capital, fall within days and spark a humanitarian crisis as millions flee the former Soviet republic.

It comes as US troops began arriving in nearby Poland in a bid to boost Nato’s forces in the region. President Biden announced plans to send nearly 3,000 additional military personnel to eastern Europe amid tensions over Russia’s military build-up near the Ukrainian border.

AFP via Getty Images

The first group landed at Rzeszow, in the country’s south-east, on Saturday.

Polish Defence Minister Mariusz Blaszczak said minutes after the plane landed that this was the first group of American soldiers “from an elite unit”.

“More planes will be landing in the coming hours. The soldiers will operate in the southeastern part of our country,” he added.

Moscow, which denies it is planning an attack, says its troops are in the region for military drills. But Ukraine and its Western allies, including the UK and US, fear an attack is imminent.

In 2014, Russia launched a military operation and annexed 10,000 square miles of Ukraine territory in its south Crimea peninsula, and backed a rebellion in the eastern Donbas region.

The Kremlin has accused the Ukrainian government of failing to implement the Minsk agreement - an international deal to restore peace to the east, where Russian-backed rebels control swathes of territory and at least 14,000 people have been killed since 2014.

Russia is insisting that Ukraine should not be allowed to join Nato.

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