Russian troop build-up biggest since WW2: US

Russia's build-up of military personnel threatening Ukraine probably totals up to 190,000, the US ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said in a statement to an OSCE meeting on the Ukraine crisis on Friday, report agencieas.

"We assess that Russia probably has massed between 169,000-190,000 personnel in and near Ukraine as compared with about 100,000 on January 30," Michael Carpenter told the meeting, which Russia did not attend.

"This is the most significant military mobilisation in Europe since the Second World War."

Report from Moscow adds: Separatist leaders in eastern Ukraine's self-proclaimed republics said rebel authorities will begin evacuating civilians to Russia on Friday as fears of a large-scale conflict grow.

"From today, a mass centralised departure of the population to the Russian Federation has been organised. Women, children and the elderly are subject to be evacuated first," said Denis Pushilin, head of the so-called Donetsk People's Republic (DPR)

In a video message on the Telegram messaging service, he accused Kyiv of planning an imminent attack on the pro-Moscow breakaway territories.

"The president of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky in the near future will give the order for (his) soldiers to go on the offensive," Pushilin said.

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday the situation in conflict-hit eastern Ukraine was worsening, as the West accuses him of planning an imminent attack on the country.

"Right now we are seeing a deterioration of the situation" in eastern Ukraine, Putin said at a press conference with his Belarus counterpart Alexander Lukashenko in Moscow.

Russia has held massive military drills near Ukraine's borders in recent weeks.

But Putin, who has demanded promises from the West that NATO won't expand eastwards, said the drills-involving tens of thousands of soldiers-are not a threat.

"These exercises are purely defensive in nature and do not threaten anyone."

He said the West and its allies are "not yet inclined to look seriously at these key security demands."

Russia this week demanded that the US commit to pulling out all of its troops from Central and Eastern Europe.

The longtime Russian leader on Saturday will personally oversee military drills involving Moscow's "strategic forces" which will include ballistic and cruise missile launches.