MILWAUKEE – The U.S. State Department says more than 100,000 Russian troops have been stationed along the Ukrainian border, stoking fears of an armed invasion.
“Well over 100,000,” said U.S. State Department official Robin Dunnigan. “With more troops and weaponry on the way.”
Dunngan is the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Central and Eastern Europe at the U.S. State Department. She says the United States is still working towards a peaceful resolution.
“In all of these conversations, we are urging Russia to take the diplomatic path,” she said.
But Russia’s intentions are less clear. Dunnigan says Russia wants guarantees that Ukraine will never join NATO, among other demands. But she says that decision remains solely with the people of Ukraine and their elected leaders.
Russia did invade Ukraine in 2014 to annex Crimea. Dunnigan says the United States has sent lots of money to Ukraine since then, in an effort to help the Eastern European country beef-up its security defense systems.
“Over $2.7 billion of assistance [has been given to Ukraine] since 2014,” Dunnigan said.
But that money doesn’t make up for the more than 100,000 troops ready to invade Ukraine if given the order.
Dunnigan says that spreading disinformation and lies are ways in which Russia is trying to build support for an invasion of its neighbor to the southeast.
“A lot of what Russia has claimed here is absolutely false,” she said.
“There’s been this narrative that NATO is the one which is being aggressive… That it’s the United States which is being aggressive… And this disinformation campaign has tried to put this narrative out there.”
It’s a narrative which Dunnigan says is “absolutely false.”
“The risks aren’t from NATO. They’re not from the West. The risks are coming from President Putin, who has put over 10,000 troops on Ukraine’s borders.”
So how does that affect day-to-day life here in the United States?
“Our prosperity, our stability, our peace, depends on a global order in which nations respect the borders and territorial integrity of other nations,” Dunnigan said.
So what is the message from the U.S. State Department as Russia continues to stack troops along the Ukrainian border?
“Choose peace, President Putin. Because there’s an option here and we hope he takes it.”
You can listen to the entire interview with Robin Dunnigan, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Central and Eastern Europe at the U.S. State Department, in the player at the top of the page.
