Political | Process

Four officials said Thursday, as President Biden offered a bleak warning that the Kremlin will launch an attack “in the next several days.”

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• The souring optimism that it would be possible to avoid conflict came just days after a flicker of hope, when Russian leaders signaled they would begin to draw down the more than 150,000 troops they have massed at Ukraine’s border.

• That announcement was accompanied by Kremlin-produced videos of what they claimed were tanks and other heavy equipment leaving border areas by rail car. U.S. officials now believe it was an effort to mask Russia’s true intentions in the region.

• All four officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive intelligence.

• Russian forces have continued to increase near Ukraine’s frontier, officials said, and shelling escalated in eastern Ukraine, adding to increasingly gloomy attitudes in Washington and European capitals that had hoped to forestall war.

• Russia is continuing military exercises in Belarus, in easy reach of Ukraine’s border, that intelligence officials fear could give the cover for an invasion. The exercises are due to end Sunday.

• Biden told reporters at the White House that the threat of invasion remains “very high” and that Russia may be creating an excuse to do so.

• “We have reason to believe that they are engaged in a false-flag operation to have an excuse to go in,” Biden said.

“Every indication we have is they’re prepared to go into Ukraine, attack Ukraine.” He added that “my sense is it will happen in the next several days.”

• Biden’s pessimistic view coincided with fresh intelligence assessments about Russia’s intentions.

• Washington obtained “credible information that Russia’s claims may be part of a disinformation campaign designed to mislead” the United States, said a U.S. official. Two other U.S. officials and one European official independently confirmed they were familiar with the intelligence.

SOURCE: WSJ