Russian forces continue to arrive at the border with Ukraine, says the Pentagon

U.S affirmed that Russia continues to reinforce its military presence on the border with Ukraineat a time when France claims to have received guarantees from the Kremlin that there will be no more “escalation” of the crisis.

“We have continued to see, even in the last 24 hours, additional capabilities coming from other parts of Russia toward the border with Ukraine and Belarus,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said.

“We are not going to give concrete figures, but they continue to increase,” he added, pointing to a total of “more than 100,000” troops present now.

“We also see signs that other task forces are on the way,” continued the spokesman for the US Department of Defense.

Russian President Vladimir Putin “continues to strengthen his military capabilities” in the area, he stressed. “Every day it gives itself more options, every day it strengthens its capabilities, every day it continues to destabilize what is already a very tense situation.”

The spokesman recalled that the United States has no intention of carrying out any operation in Ukraine, a country that is not a member of the NATOas the first 3,000 US troops sent to “reassure” allies on NATO’s eastern flank began deploying to Poland and Romania.

They could potentially participate in relief operations if US citizens residing in Ukraine took refuge in those countries in the event of a Russian invasion, but that should not be necessary, Kirby said.

The United States has warned for several weeks that it does not plan to militarily evacuate Americans from Ukraine as it did in Kabul in the middle of last year.

Washington accuses Moscow of preparing a potential large-scale invasion of Ukraine at very short notice, although US officials believe Putin has not yet made a decision on whether or not to go on the offensive.

The French head of state, Emmanuel Macron, met on Monday in Moscow with Putin, and on Tuesday, in Kiev, with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodimir Zelensky.

Macron claimed to have received a commitment from the Russian president that there will be no additional “escalation”, and Paris affirms that this visit allowed “progress” to defuse the situation.