After an 11-month build-up of military forces along Ukraine’s eastern frontier, US officials believe Russia now has amassed sufficient capability to launch a new invasion of its neighbour before the Beijing Winter Olympics come to a close on 20 February.
Speaking at the White House daily press briefing on Friday, White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters there “is a distinct possibility” that Russian president Vladimir Putin will order such an invasion “in this window,” and stressed the intelligence the US has gathered is “well-grounded” in what the US Intelligence Community “is seeing on the ground” and “picking up through all of their various sources”.
