Satellite photos of Russian troops on the Ukrainian border

KYIV – Tanks and other threatening self-propelled artillery. A Russian Buk surface-to-air missile system similar to the one that launched Flight 17 of Malaysia Airlines in eastern Ukraine in 2014. A thousand more soldiers.

These are just them some du Russian forces and material It has only been seen in videos posted on social media heading to the Ukrainian border last week. Western and Ukrainian intelligence agencies estimate that about 100,000 soldiers, along with fighter jets and ballistic missiles, are already in operation. That number could rise to 175,000 welds, agencies say.

These implementations, along with verbal threats and war games far from Ukraine, do not bode well for peace in Eastern Europe. It is a painful sign that Russia is preparing to launch another large-scale, multi-frontal invasion of Russia 30 years after independence. ago.

Experts warn that an invasion could explode into the biggest and bloodiest war in Europe since World War II. But the threat of President Vladimir Putin threatens to take only the U.S. and its allies in Western Europe, as well as NATO, deeper. almost 8 years of war in Ukraine, which has already killed more than 14,000 people. Russian leader he said wants NATO to fulfill its promise to become a future member of Ukraine in 2008.

Recent satellite images from BuzzFeed News and military experts from BuzzFeed News show some of these new forces in Soloti, in southwestern Russia, about 30 miles from the Ukrainian border, and in strategic locations in Opuk, southern Crimea. In 2014, Moscow forcibly captured the Black Sea Peninsula from Kiev.

This weekend, the Russian army has held him back live fire-like exercises About 1,500 soldiers in and around. Russian Federal Security Service, FSB, He intercepted a Ukrainian army ship Azov said he was carrying out a “provocation” at sea. And President Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin and the country’s public media threw more war rhetoric.

White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters that Putin has not yet made a decision on whether to launch another large-scale invasion of Ukraine. But U.S. intelligence and military analysts have warned that Russia has a large number of forces in place if it so decides.

“There is no indication that Russia’s forces are moving away from Ukraine, but it shows that Russia continues to send more ground forces near the border,” said Rob Lee, a Russian military expert and King’s College London doctor of war. The Department for Studies told BuzzFeed News. “This would mean that Russia will maintain an improved military position near Ukraine in the near future … even if they do not intensify in Ukraine.”

Konrad Muzyka, a Russia-Belarus-based defense analyst, analyzed images of Maxar Technologies for BuzzFeed News. He said Russia had set up a new regiment in its 3rd Motor Rifle Division and that the group was likely to be a big part of the increase in troops and equipment seen in satellite imagery in Solotin from September 7 to December 5. That was two days earlier. Biden’s call to Putin.

“The regiment is based on BMP-3Ms [Russian infantry fighting vehicles] They withdrew from the 22nd Erota Central Reserve and Maintenance Tank Base in mid-November, “he said, referring to the northwestern city of Moscow.” In total, from mid-November to the beginning of December, about 200 new vehicles appeared in Solotin, although probably not all of them came to Buy.

CEO Stephen Wood Maxar told BuzzFeed News that the latest rise in the number of vehicles seen in the Dec. 5 figure could represent military units returning after Russia took part in a major ground force exercise in the fall.

In Opuk, Muzyka said, it is more difficult to know what is indicated in the satellite images released on November 27th. “In the last two months, there has been a lot of movement in and out of Crimea. It is possible to confuse the scale of Russian forces. “

Wood said this was “one of the areas where the Russian army had extensive strength and equipment in April.” Most of the equipment and troops left the training area in the early summer, according to Wooden, but “this set of equipment shown in the November 26 figure indicates new equipment for the area from the end of November.”

Muzyka noticed a disturbing element in those images: markers containing several tents with military equipment. Being in their place meant that there was no need to spread beyond the base.

“For me, the withdrawal of equipment from storage is an indicator that Russia is preparing for a conflict to create a new unit,” he said.

In a highly diplomatic push to prevent a new attack, Biden told Putin on Tuesday that it would have serious consequences at the virtual summit if it invaded Ukraine further.

“I made it very clear to President Putin … if he moves to Ukraine, the economic consequences of his economy will be devastating, destructive,” Biden said of Friday’s debate.

The Biden administration has said it is exploring a number of options to prevent Russia’s aggressive behavior and a new invasion of Ukraine. He said he could send more military aid to Kiev, including anti-tank missiles, and spread the idea of ​​sending air defense systems. And Biden himself has said he is ready to impose harsh new sanctions on Russia, even if it is hard to see.

“What President has made very clear to President Putin, what I have said very clearly to Foreign Minister Lavrov, my partner, is that we are looking and ready to take action that we have not taken. That past would have serious consequences for Russia,” the secretary told NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday.

Speaking from a meeting with top diplomats from the 7-nation Group, Blinken said his members were “equally determined to fight the Russian attack, to prevent it perfectly, to prevent it.”

Biden spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday. They both talked about ways to try to break the diplomatic barrier with Russia when the peace agreement known as the Minsk Accords was suspended.

The Ukrainian leader also encouraged Biden to be proactive with sanctions and security aids, arguing that putting them in and now sending aid could prevent an attack, a Zelensky adviser familiar with the call told BuzzFeed News.

A sign that Biden and Zelensky could get worse before the situation improves, Putin told Russian media that the Ukrainian military’s actions in eastern Ukraine were “Russophobic” and “resembling genocide.” In a Sunday evening talk show on Russian state television, Putin deplored the break-up of the USSR. According to Reuters, Saying that it brought an end to “historic Russia.”