Russia moves blood supplies near Ukraine, adding to US concern, officials sa
Categories: FOREIGN COUNTRIES
Current and former U.S. officials say concrete indicators -- like blood supplies -- are critical in determining whether Moscow would be prepared to carry out an invasion, if Russian President Vladimir Putin decided to do so.The disclosure of the blood supplies by US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, adds another piece of context to growing US warnings that Russia could be preparing for a new invasion of Ukraine as it masses more than 100,000 troops near its borders. "It doesn't guarantee that there's going to be another attack, but you would not execute another attack unless you have that in hand," said Ben Hodges, a retired U.S. lieutenant general now with the Center for European Policy Analysis research institute.Ukraine's deputy defence minister Hanna Malyar denied the information.On Friday, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy criticised a "feeling abroad" that a war had already started. "We don't need this panic," he told reporters in Kyiv. A White House spokesperson did not immediately comment on any Russian movement of blood supplies but noted repeated public U.S. warnings about Russian military readiness.The Pentagon declined to discuss intelligence assessments.The three U.S. officials who spoke about the blood supplies declined to say specifically when the United States detected their movement to formations near Ukraine. However, two of them said it was within recent weeks. Russian officials have repeatedly denied planning to invade. But Moscow says it feels menaced by Kyiv's growing ties with the West.Eight years ago it seized Crimea and backed separatist forces who took control of large parts of eastern Ukraine.Putin said on Friday the United States and NATO had not addressed Russia's main security demands in their standoff over Ukraine but that Moscow was ready to keep talking. Western countries have already imposed repeated rounds of economic sanctions since Russian troops seized and annexed Ukraine's Crimea peninsula in 2014.But such moves have had scant impact on Russian policy, with Moscow, Europe's main energy supplier, calculating that the West would stop short of steps serious enough to interfere with gas exports.