Russia moves more troops westward amid Ukraine tensions

By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV
Associated Press

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian officials say Moscow is sending an unspecified number of troops from the country’s far east to Belarus for major joint military drills. The deployment will dramatically bolster an estimated 100,000 Russian troops already amassed near Ukraine in what the West fears could be a prelude to an invasion. Russia has denied that it intends to attack. But Moscow has demanded guarantees from the West that NATO won’t expand to Ukraine or other ex-Soviet nations or place weapons there. Those demands were rejected last week by Washington and its allies. The White House warned Tuesday that Russia could attack its neighbor at “any point,” while the U.K. delivered a batch of anti-tank weapons to Ukraine.