(Reuters) – New satellite images taken by a U.S. private company have shown that Russia continues to increase its presence in the annexed Crimea, and close to Ukraine over recent weeks. The United States is pressing for security assurances talks.

Reuters was unable to independently confirm the most recent images of Maxar Technologies, a U.S. company (NYSE:). On Friday, the Kremlin reiterated that it has the rights to send its forces onto Russian territory as necessary and claimed that provocative actions were being carried out by Western nations near its borders.

U.S. leaders and European and Ukrainian leaders accuse Russia of building troops once again close to Ukraine’s border. This is after a previous buildup that occurred in April. Maxar released additional images. U.S. President Joe Biden, along with other leaders, claims that Moscow is weighing an attack against Ukraine within the next month. This has been repeatedly denied by Moscow.

Late Thursday’s images showed the Crimean base, annexed by Russia from Ukraine in 2014. It was packed full of hundreds of tanks and armoured vehicles as of December 13. In October, a Maxar satellite image showed that the base had been half empty.

Maxar reported that the Russian garrison had received a new brigade level unit made up of several hundred armored vehicles. This includes tanks, artillery, and air defense equipment.

Maxar stated in a statement that “Over the last month, our high resolution satellite imagery had observed a number new Russian deployments within Crimea and in many training areas in Western Russia along the border with Ukraine.”

Three sites in Crimea were mentioned and five in western Russia, where there was increased activity.

On Thursday, President Vladimir Putin stated that Russia wants to avoid conflict but needs an immediate response from the United States (and its allies) to its security guarantee demands. Moscow stated that it expected talks to begin in January with U.S. officials about the matter in Geneva.

Dmitry Peskov (Kremlin spokesperson) said Friday that Moscow was protecting its own security as he answered questions about Russian troops being built up near Ukraine.

Peskov said that Russia was moving its own troops to its territories against the background of unfriendly actions taken by NATO, USA and other European countries near our borders.

This forces us to take some measures to ensure our security.

Biden warned of strong economic sanctions and other actions if Russia invades Ukraine. These threats are based on the Moscow’s 2014 annexed Crimea sanctions and support for a continuing separatist rebellion by proRussian forces. An American official said that new measures of retaliation could include strict export control.

Russia claims it wants NATO’s eastward expansion to be stopped and seeks guarantees from the West that they will not send offensive weapons to Ukraine.

Maxar photographs also revealed a building up at Soloti, Russia’s staging ground close to Ukraine border. Also, photos taken in December showed more military hardware than those of September.

Others photos showed continued build-ups in Yelnya a Russian settlement located 160 miles (260km) north of Ukraine’s border. Another picture was taken at Pogonovo near Voronezh.