Russian military gets near Ukraine

MOSCOW — Armored personnel carriers bristling with weapons line a highway in southern Russia. Rows of tanks are parked beside major roads. Heavy artillery is transported by train.

And Western governments are trying to find out why. The movements appear to be the largest deployment of Russian land forces toward the border with Ukraine in seven years, according to the U.S. government.

Whether it is a test of how the Biden administration might respond, retaliation against Ukraine for curbing Russian influence in domestic politics in Kiev, or preparation for actual cross-border military action has divided analysts.

Another possible motive has been found closer to home: The very public military buildup has shifted attention from the imprisonment and failing health of President Vladimir Putin’s chief political opponent, Alexei Navalny.

The Ukraine war has been on a low simmer since 2015. Russian-backed separatists and the Ukrainian army have faced off along a 250-mile front, shelling and sniping at one another but not seeking major advances.

The fighting picked up last month, with nine Ukrainian soldiers killed since late March.

On Friday, the Kremlin appeared to escalate the situation again by laying out a justification for military intervention on humanitarian grounds, discussing the prospect of a new war in the region in some of the starkest, most open terms yet. The Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said Russia would intervene to prevent ethnic cleansing of Russian speakers by the Ukrainian government.

On Thursday, Russia’s chief negotiator in the Ukrainian peace process, Dmitry Kozak, offered another potential justification for intervention: to protect people with dual Ukrainian and Russian citizenship. Since 2019, Russia has been granting citizenship to residents of the two separatist enclaves in eastern Ukraine.