Russia has sent an American diplomat home from Moscow as tensions remained at a peak Thursday in the conflict over Ukraine.
NATO allies accused Russia of misleading the world and disseminating "disinformation" by saying it was returning some troops to bases, charging that Moscow has instead added as many as 7,000 more troops near its tense border with Ukraine.
The Russian government, meanwhile, has responded to American security proposals, a senior State Department official said Thursday. The U.S. and Russia have been trading replies on Moscow's demands over security concerns related to Ukraine. Russia wants guarantees that NATO never admit Ukraine and other former Soviet nations as members and that the alliance roll back troop deployments in other former Soviet bloc countries.
In Washington, President Joe Biden told reporters the threat of a Russian invasion is “very high” and could take place in the next several days. He cited reports that Russia is moving more troops along the border with Ukraine and may be engaged in a “false flag” operation to create a pretext for an invasion.
“Every indication we have is they're prepared to go into Ukraine, to attack Ukraine,” he said.
Biden said he still believes a diplomatic solution to the crisis is possible, which is why he asked Secretary of State Antony Blinken to deliver a statement to the U.N. Security Council on Thursday.
“There is a path – there is a way through this,” he said.
Biden said he has no plans to call Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Ahead of a UN Security Council meeting on a separatist region in eastern Ukraine, U.S. Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said on Twitter that "evidence on the ground is that Russia is moving toward an imminent invasion."
With Western fears high that Russia is planning to invade, tensions also spiked Thursday along the line that separates Ukrainian forces from Russia-backed separatists in the country's east, with the parties accusing each other of intensive shelling.
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US diplomat expelled
The State Department confirmed Thursday that Russia had expelled a top American diplomat, U.S. Deputy Chief of Mission Bart Gorman, the second most senior official stationed at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.
Gorman was expelled last week, according to an embassy spokesperson.
“Russia’s action against our (deputy chief of mission) was unprovoked and we consider this an escalatory step and are considering our response,” a State Department spokesman said.
“We call on Russia to end its baseless expulsions of U.S. diplomats and staff and to work productively to rebuild our missions,” the spokesman added. ”Now more than ever, it is critical that our countries have the necessary diplomatic personnel in place to facilitate communication between our governments.”
More:What is a false flag? US says Russia may use the tactic to justify Ukraine invasion
Austin: US sees what Russia is doing
Asked about Moscow's troop buildup, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the U.S. and its NATO partners “will closely match Russian words to Russian deeds, what they say to what they actually do.”
“We’ve seen some of those troops inch closer to that border. We see them fly in more combat and support aircraft," he said at NATO headquarters in Brussels. "We see them sharpen their readiness in the Black Sea. We even see them stocking up their blood supplies. You don’t do these sort of things for no reason, and you certainly don’t do them if you’re getting ready to pack up and go home."
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance was concerned "that Russia is trying to stage a pretext for an armed attack against Ukraine."
Earlier in the week, the Kremlin had said diplomatic efforts to ease the conflict were still possible. At the same time, it said both Tuesday and Wednesday that it was pulling troops from near the Ukrainian border. But a U.S. official later Wednesday said Russia had actually added troops, rather than withdrawn them, ratcheting up tension once again.
More:Is Russian going to invade Ukraine? Some images suggest pullback. US says not true.
"We have seen the opposite of some of the statements. We have seen an increase of troops over the last 48 hours, up to 7,000," said British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace ahead of a meeting Thursday of the western alliance in Brussels.
That squared with what a U.S. administration official said a day earlier.
British Armed Forces Minister James Heappey even called Russia's claim to be withdrawing troops "disinformation."
While the West warned the threat of invasion remains high, no attack materialized Wednesday, as some had feared.
More:Biden threatens devastating sanctions if Russia invades Ukraine. Here's what that might look like.
Satellite imagery suggests the Russian defense ministry's claim that it has started pulling back troops in some areas could be true, but military experts are skeptical.
Maxar Technologies, a space technology and intelligence company, captured images during the past week, showing a significant reduction of military vehicles in some locations where they had been massing during the past four months. But U.S., Ukrainian and NATO officials have taken a skeptical stance, with a U.S. official saying Wednesday that Russia has added as many as 7,000 troops along the Ukrainian border.
From Ukraine's eastern border
Separatist authorities in the Luhansk region reported an increase in Ukrainian shelling along the tense line of contact, describing it as a “large-scale provocation.” Separatist official Rodion Miroshnik said rebel forces returned the fire.
Ukraine disputed the claim, saying that separatists had shelled its forces, but they didn’t fire back. The Ukrainian military charged that shells hit a kindergarten, wounding two civilians, and cut power supply to half of the town.
There are concerns that a flare-up in the east could be used by Russia as a pretext for rolling across the border — though there was no immediate sign that the fighting was more intense than usual.
More:Ravaged by ongoing war, people in Ukraine's Luhansk region want the shooting to end
Yevgeny Pristinsky works at the checkpoint pushing wheelchairs with elderly people traveling across the so-called gray zone – the area between the breakaway Luhansk LNR region and the territory controlled by Ukraine – to collect their pensions.
Pristinsky found himself in a terrifying situation, in the middle of the Presidential Bridge, when he said the LNR opened fire. It was around 9 a.m., "which was unusual – they never shoot in the mornings, only after 5 p.m., and we stop working at 3 p.m.
"I was on the bridge between the two sides with my clients, the travelers – an old woman, her daughter and granddaughter. LNR fired mortar in our direction. I did not know what to do. The checkpoint shut down for about 10 minutes," he said.
Pristinsky added that the Ukrainian side responded a couple of times, and that a local kindergarten building's wall was hit and fell off.
"There were kids inside. And now Russians claim that Ukraine fired at its own schools and kindergartens. Now people are in panic waiting for 5 pm. This is a very dangerous moment because the Russian army is very close in Izvarino, they can use any response by Ukrainians as their reason to 'help the brother people' in LNR and move in."
More:Congress has tough words on Putin and Russia's aggression in Ukraine but can't agree on sanctions
Troops shifting into eastern Europe
Already the alliance has moved troops and military equipment into Eastern Europe — in a display of resolve of meant to deter any Russian aggression and underline its intent to defend NATO's eastern members, in the unlikely event that they too become a target.
The U.S. has started to deploy 5,000 troops to Poland and Romania. A further 8,500 more are on standby. Britain is sending hundreds of soldiers to Poland, offering more warships and planes, and doubling the number of personnel in Estonia. Germany, the Netherlands and Norway are sending additional troops to Lithuania. Denmark and Spain are providing jets for air policing in the Baltic Sea region.
Contributing: Anna Nemtsova, USA TODAY; Associated Press
