President Biden’s UN ambassador: Russia’s 100,000 troop build-up signals intentions to invade Ukraine

On Sunday, the top United States official for the United Nations said that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s continued build-up of troops at the border with Ukraine shows that he has “intentions to use them.”

Tensions between the two countries have been mounting for several months with the fear looming that Russia would launch an attack on its neighboring country.

Linda Thomas-Greenfield is serving as President Joe Biden’s ambassador to the U.N. and told ABC’s This Week program that the U.N. Security Council meeting held on Monday might be the last chance to come to a diplomatic resolution.

“The Russians have amassed 100,000 troops along the border, they have moved troops into Belarus, they have continued to escalate despite our efforts to try to find a diplomatic route for them and to encourage them to deescalate it,” she said. 

Thomas-Greenfield is also the Representative of the United States in the U.N. Security council, which had a meeting scheduled for Monday on how Russia has escalated the situation along the border with Ukraine.

“Part of the reason we’re calling for this meeting on Monday is one more opportunity to find a diplomatic way out for the Russians,” she added. “We have made clear that we’re prepared to address our concerns, Ukrainian concerns and Russian concerns at the diplomatic table. But it cannot be done on the battlefield.”

Thomas-Greenfield’s comments come just after Biden has said he could potentially act unilaterally in order to move U.S. troops to Eastern Europe as well as the Baltic region if Russia does end up invading and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) does not support his deployment.

Russia has said NATO is attempting to “drag” Ukraine into the alliance as fears have surmounted that Moscow is preparing an invasion.