By Nandita Bose
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A senior Biden administration official on Wednesday told reporters that the United States believes Russia’s claim it was withdrawing troops from the border with Ukraine is “false.”
“So yesterday, the Russian government said it was withdrawing troops from the border with Ukraine. They received a lot of attention for that claim, both here and around the world. But we now know it was false,” the official said. The official did not offer details or provide evidence for how it knew that.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Biden administration has confirmed that “Russia has increased its troop presence along the Ukrainian border by as many as 7,000 troops,” with many of them arriving as recently as Wednesday.
Russia’s defense ministry said Wednesday its forces were pulling back after exercises near Ukraine, and published video that it said showed forces leaving the Crimean peninsula.
But U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in an interview on MSNBC on Wednesday that “critical units” were moving towards the border.
On Tuesday, U.S. President Joe Biden said the United States estimated that 150,000 Russian troops had encircled Ukraine, an increase from previous estimates of about 100,000.
(Reporting by Nandita Bose in Washington; Editing by Leslie Adler and Rosalba O’Brien)
