Russian combat troops are again building up along the border with Ukraine, and U.S. officials believe Moscow may be sending heavy weapons into the country to aid the separatists, the Pentagon said Wednesday, according to The Associated Press.
Army Col. Steve Warren told reporters the U.S. believes there are now up to 12,000 Russian troops on the border, reflecting a steady increase in recent weeks, the AP reported.
On June 30, Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove, the U.S. commander of NATO forces in Europe, said there were about seven battalion task groups and some small special operations forces along the border - which officials said amounted to about 8,000 troops, according to the AP. The growing number of troops, he said, is "not a helpful development in what it brings to the problem."
The number has fluctuated widely. U.S. officials in May estimated that there were as many as 40,000 Russian troops arrayed along the border but as weeks went by, the total plunged to about 1,000 under pressure from the West, the AP reported.
Warren says there are a variety of Russian forces there, including the combat battalion task groups, according to the AP. Ukraine and the West have accused Russia of fomenting the insurgency by sending troops and weapons, including tanks and rocket launchers, something Moscow denies.
Ukraine has been trying to put down a revolt by heavily-armed fighters, many of them from Russia, who have sought independence for two eastern provinces since April, the AP reported.
Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimea peninsula in March after a pro-Russian president was ousted in Kiev, according to the AP. Moscow denies supporting the separatists in eastern Ukraine, but Kiev says many of the fighters and their leaders have travelled from Russia and brought heavy weapons across the border.
Ukrainian troops have focussed their efforts in recent days on securing the frontier to prevent the arrival of more fighters and weapons, the AP reported. Andriy Lysenko, spokesman for Ukraine's defence and security council, told journalists the separatists had attacked government positions along the border overnight.
