Vladimir Putin has reportedly ordered Russian troops to “proceed with the invasion” of Ukraine, a US intelligence report says.

According to CBS, a Sunday U.S. intelligence report found that the Russian president is ready for a “successful invasion” and that troops have been ordered to move forward with their battle plans.

“The intelligence says that Russian troops have actually received orders now to proceed with the invasion,” David Martin of CBS News told Face the Nation presenter Margaret Brennan.

He said: “So not only are they moving up closer and closer to the border and to these attack positions, but the commanders on the ground are making specific plans for how they would maneuver in their sector of the battlefield.

“They’re doing everything that American commanders would do once they got the order to proceed.”

The concerning report of imminent Russian invasion appears to match the words of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin who told ABC that Putin has “assembled the kinds of things that you would need to conduct a successful invasion.”

“We have high confidence in the things that we’re looking at. Of course, in terms of being able to predict exactly what’s going to happen going forward, you never can,” Austin added after host Martha Raddatz asked him about the certainty of his report.

The Defense Secretary went on to suggest that Russian troops will likely move swiftly to capture Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, should the invasion begin.

“You could see a significant amount of combat power move very quickly to take Kyiv,” he added.

Speaking to CNN about the crisis in Europe, Secretary of State Antony Blinken confirmed that “everything we’re seeing suggests that this is dead serious, that we are on the brink of an invasion.”

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