US President Joe Biden has said he will be moving troops to Eastern European and NATO countries "in the near term", as his Defense Secretary warned Russia now has a complete range of military options along Ukraine's border, including actions short of a full-scale invasion.
The Pentagon has placed about 8,500 US troops on stand-by for possible deployment to Europe, while Russian President Vladimir Putin has amassed a force of more than 120,000 troops along it's border with Ukraine.
"While we don't believe that President Putin has made a final decision to use these forces against Ukraine, he clearly now has the capability,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said.
Mr Austin told a Pentagon news conference that Mr Putin could use any portion of his forces to seize Ukrainian cities and "significant territories" or carry out "coercive acts or provocative political acts" such as the recognition of breakaway territories inside Ukraine.
He urged Mr Putin to de-escalate tensions, and appeared to warn Moscow against what the White House recently said was Russia's intent to paint Ukraine as the aggressor using a "false-flag operation" to justify an attack.
"We remain focused on Russian disinformation, including the potential creation of pretext for further invasion or strikes on Donbas," Mr Austin said.
"This is straight out of the Russian playbook. They’re not fooling us."
Speaking alongside Mr Austin, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley said Russian forces unleased on Ukraine would "result in a significant amount of casualties."
"And you can imagine what that might look like in dense urban areas, along roads and so on and so forth. It would be horrific, it would be terrible," he said.
In Moscow, the Kremlin said Mr Putin told French President Emmanuel Macron that the West had failed to take Russian security concerns into account, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told a radio interviewer that Russia doesn't want war but sees no room for compromise on its demands.
Putin tells Macron a 'key question' is being ignored
After weeks of silence on the Ukraine crisis, Mr Putin offered his first reaction to the US and NATO responses to Russia's demands in a phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday, local time.
The Kremlin quoted Mr Putin as telling Mr Macron that he would study the written responses provided by Washington and NATO this week before deciding on further action.
It listed those concerns as avoiding NATO expansion, not deploying offensive weapons near Russia's borders and returning NATO's "military capabilities and infrastructure" to how they were before former Warsaw Pact states in eastern Europe joined.
"The key question was ignored — how the United States and its allies intend to follow the principle of security integrity … that no one should strengthen their security at the expense of another country's security," it said.
A French presidency official said Mr Macron told his Russian counterpart that Russia needed to respect the sovereignty of its neighbours.
The two leaders also agreed during the call that their countries would pursue the four-way diplomatic discussions, within the Normandy format, as part of efforts to ease tensions, the official added.
"President Putin said that he wanted to continue the dialogue and that it was important to work on the implementation of the Minsk accords," the official said, adding that Mr Putin emphasised he did not want the situation to escalate.
The United States and its allies have warned Putin that Russia will face tough economic sanctions if it attacks Ukraine.
Those measures would build on sanctions imposed since Russia annexed Crimea and backed separatists in east Ukraine in 2014, although there are divisions among Western countries over how to respond because Europe is dependent on Russia for energy supplies.
As Russia — which reportedly already has about 130,000 soldiers near Ukraine's border — moves troops and military hardware into Belarus for drills, NATO said it was watching closely.
Its Secretary-General, Jens Stoltenberg, said the Western military alliance was ready to increase its troop presence in eastern Europe and that a Russian attack could take many forms, including a cyber attack, attempted coup or sabotage.
Mixed messages
Mr Lavrov had earlier on Friday sent a conciliatory message while also saying the US and Western responses did not satisfy Russia's main demands.
"We don't want wars. But we also won't allow our interests to be rudely trampled, to be ignored."
Mr Lavrov said he expected to meet US Secretary of State Antony Blinken again in the next couple of weeks.
Their last meeting, in Geneva on January 21, produced no breakthrough but both sides agreed to keep talking.
Mr Lavrov said, without giving details, that the US counter-proposals were better than NATO's. He said Russia was studying them and Mr Putin would decide how to respond.
The comments were among the most conciliatory that Moscow has made on the latest Ukraine crisis, which has escalated into one of the tensest East-West stand-offs since the Cold War ended three decades ago.
While the US and NATO responses have not been made public, both have stated they are willing to engage with Moscow on a series of topics, including arms control.
The US ambassador to Moscow, John Sullivan, told reporters that Washington had raised the possibility of "reciprocal transparency measures … including on offensive weapons systems in Ukraine, as well as measures to increase confidence regarding military exercises and manoeuvres in Europe".
He said the size of Russia's build-up near Ukraine would allow an invasion with little warning, and urged it to pull back its forces.
Russia has dismissed calls to withdraw, saying it could deploy troops, as it saw fit, on its own territory.
The head of Germany's BND foreign intelligence agency told Reuters that Russia was prepared to attack Ukraine, but added: "I believe that the decision to attack has not yet been made."
Meanwhile, the Kremlin said Mr Putin would spend a "lot of time" discussing European security issues with Chinese President Xi Jinping when he visits Beijing next week for the opening of the Winter Olympics.
Mr Putin also plans a meeting with German business people, following talks with Italian executives on Wednesday, at which he underlined the importance of energy ties between Russia and Italy.
Reuters
