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Despite continued assurances from Russian officials that they are not planning an invasion of Ukraine, American intelligence has reportedly uncovered additional Russian stockpiles of war materials, including blood supplies and support vehicles.
In a statement published in the influential Russian newspaper Pravda, Foreign Defense Minister Sergey Lavrov said: "There is no 'Russian invasion' of Ukraine, which the United States and its allies have been declaring at the official level since last fall, and it is not planned."
"Therefore, the statements about 'Russia's responsibility for the escalation' can only be regarded as part of pressure to devalue Russia's proposals for security guarantees," Lavrov continued.
However, even with these comments, as well as continued assurance from Russian President Vladimir Putin that an invasion is not imminent, U.S. officials have expressed their doubts on the validity of these statements.
"We see them fly in more combat and support aircraft. We see them sharpen their readiness in the Black Sea," U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said on Thursday. "We even see them stocking up their blood supplies."
Satellite images also reportedly showed a number of housing units and tents for Russian soldiers continuing to be set up along the border.
"I was a soldier myself not that long ago. I know firsthand that you don't do these sorts of things for no reason," Austin, a former U.S. Army general, said. "And you certainly don't do them if you're getting ready to pack up and go home."
"We are still gathering details but we have said for some time that the Russians might do something like this in order to justify a military conflict," Austin continued.
Reuters first reported in January that Russian officials were planning to increase the number of blood banks along the Ukrainian border. Lloyd's speech seems to be the first independent confirmation of that occurrence.
U.S. officials additionally told Reuters that medical indicators, such as an increase in blood supplies, are "critical in determining whether Moscow would be prepared to carry out an invasion."
The defense secretary made the comments during a meeting at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, and came as unconfirmed reports of shellfire between Russians and Ukrainians made headlines.
While U.S. President Joe Biden has continued to reiterate that American troops will not be deployed on the ground in Ukraine, he has pledged to provide support to the country through NATO if needed.
"The United States will defend every inch of NATO territory with the full force of American power," Biden said during a previous press conference. "An attack against one NATO country is an attack against all of us."
However, even with the signs of an invasion appearing to increase, Putin and top Russian officials have continued to assert that this will not occur. The Russian president has previously claimed that his country had decided to "partially pull back troops" from the Ukrainian border.
Despite Russian attempts to quell invasion fears, though, additional skepticism came from other U.S. government officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken. During a speech Thursday to the United Nations Security Council, Blinken said: "The attack is planned to begin. Russian missiles and bombs will drop across Ukraine. Communications will be jammed. Cyberattacks will shut down key Ukrainian institutions."
Blinken has previously expressed concerns that the U.S. was not seeing a walk back of troops in the way that Russia has claimed.
"We haven't seen a pullback," Blinken said earlier this week. "[Putin] can pull the trigger. He can pull it today. He can pull it tomorrow. He can pull it next week. The forces are there if he wants to renew aggression against Ukraine."
Newsweek has reached out to the White House and the Russian Embassy in Washington, D.C. for comment.
Update 02/17/2022, 7:30 p.m. ET: This story has been updated with additional information.
