US secretary of state, Antony Blinken visited Ukraine on Wednesday amidst tension against Russia. He spoke about US $200 million defense aid against any Russian invasion.
The White House announced on Tuesday that Russia could at any point launch an attack in Ukraine. In comments to US Embassy staff in Kyiv, Blinken went further by saying that Russian President Vladimir Putin has plans to significantly enhance Moscow’s military presence near Ukraine’s border, which now numbers roughly 100,000 troops.
“We know that there are plans in place to increase that force even more on very short notice and that gives President Putin the capacity, also on very short notice, to take further aggressive action against Ukraine,” Blinken finished.
The White House said Friday that US intelligence officials had concluded that Russia had already deployed operatives to rebel-controlled eastern Ukraine to carry out acts of sabotage there and blame them on Ukraine to create a pretext for possible invasion. They are prepared for any attack.