Analysis: advance forces’ battle readiness will quickly degrade, giving Putin only days to choose invasion or retreat
Highlights
- Russian forces massing near Ukraine’s borders can only be used for a few days before they have to be sent back to nearby bases, experts believe.
- Russia’s President Vladimir Putin will come under increasing pressure to use them in a full invasion of Ukraine – or send them back to staging areas, but tens of thousands of kilometres away.
- The next few days are likely to be significant, says Latvian defence minister Artis Pabriks, who said Putin will test western reaction to his recognition of the separatist territories and the formal deployment of Russian forces there.
- Russia is now believed to be holding up to a third of the overall Russian forces.