Russia increases battalions, firepower near Ukraine border(Source One India News) Weeks after the Malaysian Airline MH 17 was shot down by Pro Russian rebels in Ukraine, Russia is now preparing to respond to the Ukrainian government as it has doubled the number of battalions near the border. According to a report in The New York Times (read here), Russia has built up 17 battalions within a few miles of the Ukrainian border and has also expanded its firepower and surface to air missiles units to 14. Intelligence experts say that on the pretext of ‘peacekeeping operations’ Putin may send his forces across the border in case the Ukrainian government tried to regain the territory in eastern Ukraine. Some officials even say that more the Ukrainian forces succeed, it will add more pressure on Putin to escalate the matter. Several American intelligence agencies have confirmed the presence of Russian armored vehicles and trucks near the border. But the Western intelligence had no independent confirmation that they had crossed into Ukraine.