Russia laying the groundwork to annex more of Ukraine, Kirby says

The U.S. has intelligence that Russia is "laying the groundwork" to annex additional Ukrainian territory that it controls, "in direct violation of Ukraine's sovereignty," John Kirby, coordinator for Strategic Communications at the National Security Council, announced Tuesday.

Speaking from the White House briefing room, Kirby described how the U.S. believes Russia is taking steps toward annexing additional chunks of Ukraine, similar to how the Kremlin annexed Ukraine's Crimea in 2014. Kirby said Russia is already installing proxy officials to run these controlled regions, and doing things like forcing residents to apply for Russian citizenship, issuing Russian passports, and taking control of telecommunications infrastructure. Russia has been waging a war on Ukraine for nearly five months now.