Russia adds 7,000 more troops near Ukraine border, says US

As the United States continues to warn that Russia could invade Ukraine “any day”, more than 150,000 Russian troops are estimated to be massed near Ukraine’s borders, US President Joe Biden said on Tuesday.

Amid the escalating tensions, the US has urged all Americans to immediately leave Ukraine.

No Russian troops were withdrawn from the border with Ukraine, a senior Biden administration official told reporters on Wednesday night, disputing Moscow’s claim that it was pulling back some forces, international media reported.

“We now know it was false,” the official said, adding that as many as 7,000 troops have joined the 150,000 already near the border in recent days.

The Secretary of State Antony Blinken earlier told ABC News that US has seen “no meaningful pullback” of Russian forces and that Russian President Vladimir Putin could “pull the trigger” at any point.

While Putin and the Kremlin claim that Russia has started to withdraw some troops from near Ukraine’s borders, ABC News has learned Putin had told his military forces to be ready to invade by Wednesday.

It remains unclear whether he has made a decision to attack his neighbor. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, meanwhile, celebrated a national “day of unity” Wednesday.

Russia has denied its plans to invade and has demanded the US and NATO bar Ukraine from joining the military alliance.

Meanwhile, the officials said that the United Nations Security Council will meet today to discuss the Minsk agreements — the series of agreements between Ukraine and Russia that were meant to end the Russian-led separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine.

Vassily Nebenzia, Russia’s envoy to the UN, announced the session earlier this month when Moscow took control of the rotating Security Council presidency for the month of February.

The meeting takes on greater urgency this week, especially after the lower house of Russia’s parliament, known as the Duma, voted to ask Russian President Vladimir Putin to recognize those separatists as independent republics.

Ukraine has urged the Security Council to consider the Duma motion during the meeting, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Twitter on Wednesday.

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