More than 40 per cent of the Russian forces on the Ukraine border are now in position for attack and Moscow has begun a campaign of destabilisation, a US defence official said Friday. They have uncoiled in tactical assembly in the last 48 hours,” the official told reporters. Tactical assembly points are areas next to the border where military units are set up in advance of an attack. The official said Moscow had massed 125 battalion tactical groups close to the Ukraine border, compared to 60 in normal times and up from 80 at the beginning of February. In 2014, Russia invaded and occupied the Crimea region of Ukraine, making use of sympathetic separatists.

Source: Punch February 19, 2022 16:34 UTC