The Washington Post reports:

Russia is steadily massing its largest military presence in years near the Ukrainian border — on land and at sea — as the Kremlin tests Western support for Kyiv and its battles against pro-Moscow separatists less than three months into the Biden administration.

Russia’s motivations for the buildup are still unclear and do not necessarily signal a looming offensive, Ukrainian and Western officials said.

But moving forces from as far away as Siberia — more than 2,000 miles distance — to near Ukraine and onto the Crimean Peninsula has injected new levels of alarm in a region that has been a flash point between the West and Moscow since 2014.

In March that year, Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine, prompting international condemnation and sanctions. The following month, war broke out in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbas between Russian-allied separatists and Ukraine’s military.

More than 13,000 people have been killed in the fighting since then, according to the United Nations. The last bout of large-scale combat was more than four years ago, but there have been periodic exchanges of artillery fire along a front line that has barely budged.

Russia’s sudden military surge appears to be more about sending messages than launching a fresh offensive, analysts said. [Continue reading…]