Russian President Vladimir Putin’s reason for a major military buildup on Ukrainian borders remains a mystery, U.S. intelligence officials told lawmakers.
“The Russians have positioned themselves to give themselves options,” Army Lt. Gen. Scott Berrier, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told a Senate panel Wednesday. “We don’t know what the intent is right now.”
Kremlin officials have defended the military buildup as an internal matter, as the forces have not left Russian borders, and yet, Russian officials also have implied they might be justified to invade eastern Ukraine on behalf of Russian-speaking people in Donbas. The brewing crisis is high on Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s agenda this week at NATO headquarters in Brussels, which hosted Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, given that the conflict in Donbas was begun by Russian special forces invading under false pretenses.
“We are all concerned about the massive military buildup, and Russia must end this military buildup, stop provocations, and deescalate,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Wednesday at a joint press appearance with Blinken.
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Russian officials, who deny ever invading Ukraine despite Putin’s 2015 admission that he ordered Russian forces into the country with no insignia on their uniforms, say that they are only positioning troops on the border for training purposes.
“We are not conducting any significant military activity that has to be reported,” Yulia Zhdanova, an adviser to Russia’s delegation to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, said Wednesday. “All measures to move Russian military units are part of combat training inside our national territory. They are adequate to the situation and do not affect the security of other states.”
Russian forces are positioned in a way that could allow presage training exercises or something worse, according to U.S. officials.
“They could actually be going into a series of exercises, starting at any time,” Berrier said. “Or they could, if they chose to, perhaps do a limited objective attack. They may take that option.”
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CIA Director William Burns offered a similar assessment of the buildup. “It could be a combination of … signaling, a way of trying to intimidate the Ukrainian leadership, signals to the United States, but also their buildup has reached the point where it also could provide the basis for limited military incursions as well,” he said. “And so, it’s something, not only the United States but also our allies has to take very seriously.”
