Threat of Russian invasion of Ukraine growing

US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel says Russia’s troop buildup on the Ukrainian border increases the threat of Moscow launching a ground invasion.

Hagel told reporters on Wednesday at US European Command in Stuttgart, Germany, that the increase of Russian forces near Ukraine’s eastern border enhanced the chance of an invasion, The Associated Press reported.

“I think it’s a reality, of course it is,” said Hagel, who was in Stuttgart to hold meetings with his European military counterparts, including US Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove, NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander in Europe.

“When you see the buildup of Russian troops and the sophistication of those troops, the training of those troops, the heavy military equipment that’s being put along that border, of course it’s a reality, it’s a threat, it’s a possibility — absolutely,” he said.

US officials claim that Russia has amassed 20,000 troops along the border with Ukraine. Washington also accuses Moscow of training and arming anti-Kiev fighters in eastern Ukraine.

Moscow has repeatedly rejected claims of a military buildup on the Ukrainian border and that Russian special forces are fomenting unrest in Ukraine.

According to a recent report published in the German newspaper Bild am Sonntag, the US Central Intelligence Agency and Federal Bureau of Investigation are helping the interim authorities in Kiev to end the crisis in eastern Ukraine.

The newspaper, citing unnamed German security sources, reported that dozens of CIA and FBI agents are involved in the offensive against the pro-Russian fighters.