Russia has begun strengthening and increasing its troops in Ukraine’s Donbass region ahead of an expected attack on the area, the Pentagon’s top spokesman said Monday.
US intelligence has picked up early signs that the Russians are “trying to replenish and step up their efforts in Donbass,” press secretary John Kirby told reporters.
New images showing a convoy of vehicles heading south towards the town of Izyum are believed to be part of the Kremlin’s reinforcement effort, Kirby said, although it wasn’t clear how many vehicles were in the convoy or what they transported.
“It appears to be a mix of personnel carriers and armored vehicles and maybe some artillery, maybe some support capabilities,” he added.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned on Monday that thousands of Russian troops are preparing for a new military offensive in the east of the country, where Ukrainian forces have been fighting Russian-backed separatists since 2014.
The comments come after the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, warned on Thursday that a “significant battle is yet to come” over the Donbass, with the Kremlin intending to “assemble forces and continue their assault”. the land after not taking the capital of Kyiv.
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In preparation for the attack, Kremlin forces withdrew completely from positions in northern Ukraine around Kyiv and Chernihiv and headed to Belarus and western Russia to be armed and resupplied.
The US is seeing early signs that these withdrawn battalions are now moving east, Kirby said.