Pentagon: US Tracking Indicators of Russian Military Activity
The US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff expresses concern of Russian military activity near the Ukraine border.
A senior US military official said late on Thursday that the United States is tracking enough indicators surrounding Russian military activity near Ukraine to trigger "a lot of concern," and Russian rhetoric appears "increasingly strident".
General Mark Milley, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, would not speculate about the US' options should Russia decide on military action in Ukrainian territory, but he instead stressed the importance of Ukraine's sovereignty to the US and NATO.
Milley also added, during a flight from Seoul to Washington, "There are significant national security interests of the United States and of NATO member states at stake here if there was an overt act of aggressive action militarily by the Russians into a nation-state that has been independent since 1991."
Moscow denied talks of it planning for an attack on Ukraine
Ukraine says Russia has kept close to 90,000 troops close to their border, but Moscow denied talks of it planning for an attack on its southern neighbor and defended its right to deploy forces on its territory in the manner it best sees fit.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had said on Thursday that Russia is not interested in conflict, but NATO's eastward expansion will affect Moscow's vital interests.
Lavrov accused NATO of expanding its military infrastructure from Russia's borders, calling on the West to study the suggestions Moscow will present "in the near future" to prevent the alliance's expansion eastward.