Russia accused the United States on Thursday of ramping up tensions and ignoring Moscow's calls to ease a standoff over Ukraine, a day after Washington announced it would send nearly 3,000 extra troops to Poland and Romania.
NATO meanwhile said Russia had stepped up deployments to Ukraine's northern neighbour Belarus in recent days and was expected to have 30,000 troops there for joint military exercises this month.
Ukraine says Russia has positioned 115,000 troops near its borders, stoking fears of a looming attack. Moscow denies any such plan but international concern that Russia might be gearing up for war is running high.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denounced the U.S. troop deployments on a conference call with reporters on Thursday.
"It's obvious that these are not steps aimed at de-escalating tensions, but on the contrary they are actions that lead to increasing tension," he said.
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