Joe Biden Sends CIA Director to Russia To Warn Vladimir Putin About Building Troops on Ukraine Border
(Photo : SAUL LOEB/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
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US President Joe Biden (R) and Russian President Vladimir Putin arrive for a US-Russia summit at Villa La Grange in Geneva on June 16, 2021. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / POOL / AFP)

President Joe Biden dispatched the director of the Central Intelligence Agency to Moscow this week to warn the Kremlin that the US is keeping a close eye on their army buildup near the Ukrainian border.

Bill Burns, the director of the CIA, made a rare trip to Russia to meet with national security leaders engaged in the military increase. An energy crisis in Ukraine has heightened tensions between Kiev and Moscow, since Ukraine believes Russia is exacerbating the issues on purpose.

US becomes more concerned with Ukraine border

As part of his quest to reconstruct the old Soviet Union, Vladimir Putin has long wanted to seize control of the country. According to CNN, the US is becoming increasingly worried about the activities as the Biden administration attempts to defuse tensions between Russia and Ukraine.

According to a senior State Department source, Burns also spoke via phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The Russian invasions of Ukraine did not resume after a comparable buildup in the spring, as per Daily Mail.

Near the Russian town of Yelnya, satellite photos appeared to reveal a build-up of tanks, armored units, self-propelled artillery, and ground soldiers, raising worries of a new escalation in hostilities with pro-Moscow rebels.

In recent days, videos released on social media showed Russian military trains and truck convoys transporting tanks and missiles near the Ukrainian border in the country's southwest.

On Monday, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters that Washington was keeping an eye on the situation and that US authorities were worried. However, Ukraine's military ministry claimed late Monday that there had been "no new deployment" of Russian soldiers near the border.

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Russia builds up soldier along the Ukrainian border

The released recordings might be an "element of special informational and psychological activities," as they depicted a planned troop movement following a Russian military drill, according to the ministry. It came after a US official told the Washington Post on condition of anonymity that there had been some movement, albeit not as much as earlier this year's increase in Moscow's soldiers.

After a joint military drill with Belarus ended in late September, satellite photos appeared to indicate a buildup of Russian soldiers along the border, including the elite 1st Guards Tank Army. Maxar Technologies captured the photographs, which include army tents, an administrative facility, armored units, and support equipment.

Per Republic World, the scale and magnitude of the Russian forces are "unprecedented," according to Pentagon press secretary John Kirby on Friday, November 5. Meanwhile, Burns stoked fears in the United States that Russia is about to use its gas exports as a negotiating tool, with Ukraine and other European nations experiencing energy shortages this winter.

The images show Russian troops, tanks, and artillery massing outside the Russian town of Yelnya, and the Biden administration is more concerned than it was in the spring that Russia may launch an invasion, according to two senior US officials.

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