Blinken says US has seen ‘no meaningful pullback’ of Russian forces from the Ukraine border
By Jennifer Hansler and Kylie Atwood, CNN
The United States has not seen evidence that Russia is pulling back troops from the Ukraine border, despite Moscow’s claims, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday.
“Unfortunately, there’s a difference between what Russia says and what it does. And what we’re seeing is no meaningful pullback,” Blinken said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”
“On the contrary, we continue to see forces, especially forces that would be in the vanguard of any renewed aggression against Ukraine, continuing to be at the border, to mass at the border,” he said.
Blinken reiterated that the US believes that Russia could invade neighboring Ukraine at any moment, including this week.
“We said that we were in a window of time in which the invasion could come at any time. President Putin’s put in place the capacity to act on very short notice. He could pull the trigger. He could pull it today. He could pull it tomorrow. He could pull it next week. The forces are there if he wants to renew aggression against Ukraine,” Blinken said.
Blinken underscored that the US remains committed to trying to pursue diplomacy, but said the ball is in Russia’s court.
On Tuesday, Moscow claimed that some of its troops were moving away from the border of Ukraine, but multiple US and Western officials have said that while they would welcome such a move, they have yet to see this happen.
This story is breaking and will be updated.
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