NATO has published satellite images it said revealed Russian deployments of some 40,000 troops near the Ukrainian border, along with long lines of tanks, armoured vehicles, artillery and aircraft ready for action.
NATO has spotted Russian forces at more than 100 different sites close to the Ukraine border, British Brigadier Gary Deakin said at a briefing at NATO military headquarters at Mons in southern Belgium.
“This is a force that is very capable, at high readiness, and, as we have illustrated through the imagery, is close to routes and lines of communication,” he said.
“It has the resources to be able to move quickly into Ukraine if it was ordered to do so. If Russian political leaders took a decision to send forces into Ukraine, the first Russian forces could be on the move within 12 hours.”
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said, “We have seen the satellite images day after day.
But Moscow dismissed the pictures saying they were from last August.
