MILITARY
U.S. warns Russia may invade Ukraine
November 12, 2021 - The U.S. is raising the alarm with European allies that Russia may be planning an invasion of Ukraine as tensions flare between Moscow and the EU over migrants and energy supplies.
According to Bloomberg, U.S. officials have briefed EU counterparts on their concerns over a possible military operation in Ukraine's east to annex territory similar to the 2014 annexation of the Crimean peninsula.
New satellite images show Russian troops with heavy equipment massing in large camps at Yelnya, Bryansk and Kursk, near its western border. The military build-up includes covert deployment of elite troop units, defence firm Janes says.
Meanwhile, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia have also been warning of the risk of conflict between Belarus – a close ally of Moscow – and Poland amid a migrant crisis on their shared border.
The EU accuses Belarus dictator Alexander Lukashenko of forcing migrants to make illegal crossings into Poland in a cynical attempt to destabilise the bloc using vulnerable people as his weapon.
Lukashenko has threatened to cut the transit of gas and goods through Belarus to Europe if the EU imposes further sanctions on his regime over the migrant crisis on the Belarusian-Polish border.