US Claims Russian Military Buildup Along Ukraine Border

Offers Neither Evidence Nor Details on Deployments

With their prototypical lack of evidence and a conspicuous lack of any details, the US State Department is once again accusing Russia of a military buildup along the Ukrainian border.

In the statement, they labeled the “Russian aggression” as involving the largest force they’ve had in the area since October, and a significant amount of air defenses.

The allegations also included claims that Russia had put some of the air defense systems inside Ukrainian territory, though they did not offer details on this, and it’s unclear from the allegations if this deployment was purported to have occurred in rebel Donetsk or in Crimea, the later of which Russia annexed last year but which the US regularly refers to as “Ukrainian territory” for the sake of such allegations.

The US claimed the deployments amounted to a violation of the Minsk ceasefire between Ukraine and its rebels, though in the absence of anything beyond the State Department’s word, it’s probably not going to impact anything in that regard, as the ceasefire continues to mostly hold.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.