Putin has deployed nearly 100% of amassed forces into Ukraine

— Russia has committed nearly all its combat power stationed along the border into Ukraine, the Pentagon said Monday as it announced 500 more U.S. troops were deploying to Europe to boost NATO security.

With President Vladimir Putin intensifying operations, the U.S. Defense Department also warned that Russian strikes on civilians were mounting and that Moscow was seeking to recruit foreign fighters, notably Syrians, for the war.

But the deadly invasion has slowed to a slog, and apart from some wins in southern Ukraine, Russian forces “really haven’t made any noteworthy progress in the last few days,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said.

The United States has already deployed 12,000 additional soldiers to Europe since February, but President Joe Biden has stressed that U.S. troops will not engage in a conflict with Russian forces in Ukraine.

Over the weekend, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin ordered roughly 500 additional military personnel to locations in Europe, particularly NATO’s eastern flank, “to augment U.S. forces that are already in theater,” Kirby told reporters.

“These additional personnel are being positioned to respond obviously to the current security environment caused by Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, and certainly to help reinforce and bolster deterrence and defense capabilities of the NATO alliance.”

Kirby said the Defense Department has assessed that of the Russian forces built up along the border — estimated by Western nations at over 150,000 troops — Putin has “got nearly all the mass combat power that he had assembled inside Ukraine.”

With Ukrainians trying to hold the assault at bay, Russia has engaged in more long-range attacks — a mix of bombardments, rocket launches, artillery strikes and more than 625 missiles — to make up for their lack of movement on the ground, the Pentagon said.

“We do believe… that they are having morale problems, they are having supply problems, they are having fuel problems, they’re having food problems,” he added.