Two US warships are due to arrive in the Black Sea this week, a sign of support for President Biden's administration in Ukraine. It is increasingly feared that Russian President Vladimir Putin is considering an attack on neighboring Ukraine. Moscow has begun deploying Russian troops, tanks and missiles along the border with Ukraine.

The deployment of about 40 Russian troops is the largest and strongest military formation since the 2014 annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea. According to Ukrainian and US intelligence sources, Russia has conducted at least three military exercises along the Ukrainian border since last month. The exercises should be synchronized and coordinated by Russian combat units for the eventual entry into Ukrainian territory and the annexation of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, where a large Russian population lives. Last week, for the first time since taking office, Biden spoke by telephone with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky.

According to a White House statement, "he reaffirmed his strong US support for Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity in light of the continuing Russian aggression in Donbas and Crimea." Sending warships to the Black Sea should highlight that support. Clashes between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian rebels in Ukraine's Donbas region have been escalating since late January, with Kremlin senior official Dmitry Kozak warning that a full-scale escalation of the conflict would likely be "the beginning of the end" for Ukraine and Kiev and Western countries. Kozak is a threat. On the other hand, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied the allegations of accumulation of Russian army forces, but reminded that Russia has the right to "move its armed forces through its territory" whenever and however it wants.

During a visit to Donbas last week, the Ukrainian president warned Ukrainians of a "major escalation" in clashes with Russia. A Ukrainian soldier was killed and one was injured in the region on Saturday, Ukrainian military officials said. This is the fourth Ukrainian casualty of the fighting in Donbas this month alone.

Ukrainians say the soldier was killed after pro-Russian forces opened fire with automatic grenade launchers and 82-mm mortars, which are banned by the Minsk peace agreement, signed in 2014, which is often violated. Kiev fears Russian President Putin is fueling a crisis in Ukraine to unite the Russians against the external enemy before the parliamentary elections in September, as well as to divert attention from internal problems, such as the detention of opposition activist Alexei Navalny, is the assessment of Kiev and Washington. Russia, on the other hand, claims that Kiev is preparing an offensive against the rebels and threatening to help the population in the separatist zones, where hundreds of thousands of Russian passports have been distributed.

On Friday, Putin accused Ukraine of "dangerous provocations" in Donbas. Russia has also sent warnings to countries not to sell weapons to Kiev. For now, the enigma remains whether Moscow really intends to launch a military offensive at the moment or just wants to test the determination of the West and the pro-Western government in Kiev. The possibility that the deployment of military forces could be part of an election strategy ahead of Russia's September parliamentary elections is not ruled out.

Putin's popularity is declining, and his United Russia party could have a poor election result. Analysts say provoking a state of emergency without waging a full-scale war could improve the outlook for Putin's party and allow it to exploit a wave of patriotism.

However, the possibility is not ruled out that Moscow wants a brief but limited conflict identical to the one in Georgia in 2008 when then-President Mikheil Saakashvili responded to a provocation from South Ossetia and intervened, leading to Russian armed intervention and the overthrow of pro-Western Saakashvili. . Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian separatists are fighting for control of eastern Ukraine since Russia's annexation of Crimea, and more than 14.000 people have been killed in the conflict.