When Russia first began massing troops, tanks and artillery on its border with Ukraine in March, Vladimir Putin insisted the deployments were just a snap exercise.
But as the build-up has continued to swell to as many as 175,000 personnel, the US has warned allies the Russian leader may be planning a renewed invasion for real this time — and found Moscow in an increasingly belligerent mood.
In the past few days alone, Putin has likened Ukraine’s policy in the Donbas, the border region where Russia has led a slow-burning separatist war since 2014, to “genocide” — words Kyiv fears may be a pretext to invade.
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