US says Russian force 'near 100%' for Ukraine invasion

• We still cannot confirm that Russian military forces have moved in the Donbas areas, says US official.
• Says 80% of estimated 150,000-plus Russian forces along Ukraine border are in "ready positions."
• Says whether they actually go or not is really up to Mr Putin ... They could go at any hour now."

The United States said Wednesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin is "as ready as he can be" for a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, with nearly 100% of the necessary military forces already in place.

"We assess today that he is near 100% of all the forces that we anticipated that he would move in. He is dang near at 100%," a US defense official told reporters on grounds of anonymity.

The official said that 80% of the estimated 150,000-plus Russian forces along the Ukraine border are in "ready positions": spread out in attack formation within a few kilometres of the frontier.

"He is as ready as he can be," the official said. "Whether they actually go or not is really up to Mr Putin ... They could go at any hour now."

While US President Joe Biden said Tuesday the invasion is "beginning," administration officials say that does not yet have evidence that Russian forces have crossed the border into Ukraine.

"We still cannot confirm that Russian military forces have moved in the Donbas areas," the defense official said.

Russia evacuates diplomats from Ukraine, takes down mission flags

On the other hand, TASS news agency, citing a representative of the Russian Embassy in Kyiv, reported that Russia has started evacuating diplomatic staff from all of its missions in Ukraine.

The embassy as well as the consulate general in Odessa were seen on Wednesday with Russian flags taken down.

"Several cars left the territory of the consulate in the morning," a member of the Ukrainian National Guard who was on duty near the Russian consulate in Odessa told Reuters.

Russia's foreign ministry announced an evacuation of diplomatic staff from Ukraine for what it called safety reasons on Tuesday, a day after President Vladimir Putin recognised the independence of two breakaway regions in Ukraine's east and ordered Russian troops "to keep the peace" there while massing military along Ukrainian borders.

The United States and its allies unveiled more sanctions against Russia on Wednesday over its recognition of the two separatist areas, while making clear they were keeping tougher measures in reserve in case of a full-scale invasion by Moscow.

Last week a video showing smoke rising from the Russian Embassy's chimney circulated online. An employee said that staff had burnt documents before departure, TASS quoted him as saying on Wednesday.

"This is an ordinary procedure. In cases as we have now there is a set of measures that should be taken for security reasons," the employee said, according to TASS.

Ukraine's Foreign Ministry requested President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to break off diplomatic ties with Russia in response to the recognition of the independence of separatist-held regions.

Zelenskiy said on Tuesday he was weighing the request.