Upon the question, “Is President Biden prepared to warn that there’s the possibility of U.S. military involvement if Russia invades Ukraine?” Psaki said: “Again, I’m not going to get ahead of the President’s conversation, but that is not our first objective.”

“I would note that, in the past, if you look back at 2014, that one of the outcomes here, if they were to decide to move forward, is that the other countries in the eastern flank, in — many of them NATO partners — will be looking for reassurance from the United States.”

“That’s something that was a follow-up to 2014.  I’m not sure that is what Russia wants to see.  But that would be a natural consequence if they were to move forward as well,” she added.

In late March–early April, the Russian military moved large quantities of arms and equipment from western and central Russia, and as far away as Siberia, into occupied Crimea and the Voronezh and Rostov oblasts of Russia.

Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Ruslan Khomchak said that Russia has stationed twenty-eight BTGs (battalion tactical groups) along the border and that it was expected that twenty-five more were to be brought in, including in Bryansk and Voronezh oblasts in Russia's Western Military District. The following day, Russian state news agency TASS reported that fifty of its BTGs consisting of 15,000 soldiers were massed for drills in the Southern Military District, which includes occupied Crimea and also borders the Donbas conflict zone.

By 9 April, the head of the Ukrainian border guard estimated that 85,000 Russian soldiers were already in Crimea or within 40 kilometers (25 mi) of the Ukrainian border. (ILKHA)