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Putin has deployed nearly 100% of pre-staged forces into Ukraine- U.S. official

08 March 2022 07:30 (UTC +04:00)

Russian President Vladimir Putin has now deployed into Ukraine nearly 100% of the more than 150,000 forces that he had pre-staged outside the country before the invasion, a senior U.S. defense official said on Monday, APA reports quoting Reuters.

"That's our best estimate right now," the official told reporters, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Twelve days after starting its invasion of Ukraine, Russian forces have largely stalled north on Kyiv and still do not control the skies over Ukraine, increasingly relying on missile and artillery strikes.

The official said Russia had fired more than 625 missiles at Ukrainian targets.

The Pentagon ordered over the weekend an additional 500 troops to Europe, which would bring the total number of American forces there to about 100,000, the official said, as the United States seeks to guard against the war's spillover into NATO nations.

The additional troops had largely been expected and are being sent from the United States to support American troops already in the region.