Russia’s claim that it is moving troops away from the border with Ukraine is “false”, according to a senior US official, who added that 7,000 extra troops have arrived in recent days.
The official also said that Russia could launch a “false” pretext to invade Ukraine “at any moment”.
Moscow says it is moving troops away from the Ukrainian border after the completion of military exercises.
But Western officials say they have seen no evidence to support the claim.
Russia denies planning to invade Ukraine, despite having amassed well over 100,000 troops near the border.
“Yesterday, the Russian government said it was withdrawing troops from the border with Ukraine,” a senior White House official told journalists on Wednesday. “They received a lot of attention for that claim, both here and around the world. But we now know it was false.”
The official – quoted by several news agencies – said that as many as 7,000 more Russian troops have been moved to Ukraine’s borders in recent days, with some arriving as recently as Wednesday.
Russia calls Western concern over an invasion “hysteria”. On Wednesday, its defence ministry published a video purporting to show tanks leaving Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
But Ukraine and Western countries have cast doubt on the claims that Russian troops are moving away from the border, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky telling the BBC: “We don’t see any troop withdrawal yet, we just heard about it.”
Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has also said there are no signs that Russian forces are de-escalating, saying on Wednesday that the threat from Russia had become a “new normal”.
Speaking at a summit of Nato defence ministers in Brussels, Mr Stoltenberg said the alliance was considering setting up new battle groups – the smallest type of self-sufficient military units – in central and south-eastern Europe.
He said this was part of ongoing measures to bolster European defence – on which $270bn (£199bn) had been spent since 2014 – although he attempted to reassure Russia that Nato was not a threat.
France had offered to lead one such battle group in Romania, he said.
Russia’s foreign ministry said it was “no longer interested” in Mr Stoltenberg’s statements.
