MOSCOW/KYIV — There is a growing Russian military presence at Ukraine’s borders, Western countries warned on Wednesday, as Estonia said battle groups were moving ahead of a likely attack to occupy “key terrain,” contradicting Moscow’s insistence of a pullback.

More armored vehicles, helicopters and a field hospital have been spotted, Britain’s defense intelligence chief said in rare public comments.

Up to 7,000 more troops have moved to the border in recent days, including some arriving on Wednesday, a senior official in US President Joseph R. Biden’s administration said, without providing evidence.

World powers are engaged in one of the deepest crises in East-West relations for decades, jostling over post-Cold War influence and energy supplies as Russia wants to stop Ukraine ever joining the NATO military alliance.

Western nations have suggested arms control and confidence-building steps to defuse the standoff, which has prompted them to urge their citizens to leave Ukraine because an attack could come at any time. Russia denies it has any plans to invade.

“There’s what Russia says. And then there’s what Russia does. And we haven’t seen any pullback of its forces,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in an interview on MSNBC.

“We continue to see critical units moving toward the border, not away from the border.”

Estonian intelligence is aware of around 10 battle groups of troops moving toward the Ukrainian border, where it estimates about 170,000 soldiers are already deployed, said Mikk Marran, director general of the Estonian Foreign Intelligence Service.

The attack would include missile bombardment and the occupation of “key terrain,” he added.

“If Russia is successful in Ukraine, it would encourage it to increase pressure on the Baltics in the coming years,” he said. “The threat of war has become the main policy tool for Putin.”

Russia’s defense ministry said its forces were pulling back after exercises in southern and western military districts near Ukraine, and Moscow’s ambassador to Ireland insisted forces in western Russia would be back to their normal positions within three to four weeks.

It published video that it said showed tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, and self-propelled artillery units leaving the Crimean peninsula, which Moscow seized from Ukraine in 2014.

But NATO military commanders are drawing up plans for new combat units that diplomats said could be deployed in Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia.

Such units — designed to buy time for additional soldiers to reach the front line if needed — already exist in Poland and the Baltic states.

Britain will double the size of its force in Estonia and send tanks and armored fighting vehicles to the small Baltic republic bordering Russia as part of the NATO deployment.

Ukraine also increased the number of border guards on its frontier with Belarus, Russia’s ally, where some 9,000 Russian troops are estimated to be involved in military exercises.

President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is criss-crossing the country to help bolster Ukrainians’ morale, observed drills by his armed forces that included Javelin anti-tank missiles.

Wednesday was designated a patriotic holiday in response to reports Russia could invade on that day. “No one can love our home as we can. And only we, together, can protect our home,” he said.

People raised flags and played the national anthem to show unity against fears of an invasion.

The government said a cyberattack that hit the defense ministry was the worst of its kind the country had seen, pointing the finger at Russia, which denied involvement. —  Reuters

TAIPEI — Taiwan’s government proposed on Thursday a new law to prevent China from stealing its chip technology, amid rising concern in Taipei that Beijing is stepping up its economic espionage.

Tech powerhouse Taiwan makes the majority of the world’s most advanced semiconductor chips, used in everything from fighter jets to mobile phones, and the government has long worried about Chinese efforts to copy that success, including through economic espionage, poaching talent and other methods.

Taiwan’s cabinet said it had proposed new offenses for “economic espionage” under the national security law, setting out punishment of up to 12 years in prison for those who leak core technologies to China or “foreign enemy forces”.

Using chip giant TSMC’s most advanced 2-nanometer chipmaking technology as an example, cabinet spokesman Lo Ping-cheng said such technology could be deemed vital to Taiwan’s security under the new law, and thus extra protection was needed for it, in addition to existing laws on trade secrets.

“Everyone knows that TSMC … has world-leading technologies,” Mr. Lo said. “If their technologies were stolen there would be a significant impact.”

A designated court for economic espionage crime would be established to speed up trials, Mr. Lo added.

The government also proposed tightening laws to prevent Chinese companies from illegally poaching Taiwan talent via firms set up in a third country.

It also toughened punishment for Chinese investment in Taiwan via illegal methods, which the government said had led to many cases of industrial espionage in recent years.

“The infiltration in Taiwan’s industries from the red supply chain is getting more and more severe in recent years,” Taiwan Premier Su Tseng-chang said in a statement, referring to Chinese tech suppliers.

“They poached our nation’s high-tech talents and stole the nation’s core and key technologies.”

Taiwan’s parliament has to pass the revisions before they become law. — Reuters