The news continues, so let's hand it over to Laura Coates and CNN tonight.

Laura.

Thanks, John Berman.

Nice to see you as always.

And thank you so much.

I am Laura Coates, and this is CNN Tonight.

There's what Russia says, and then there's what Russia does, according to the White House.

And tonight there are new assessments from high up at Putin's trying to play the West

for fools.

According to a senior U.S. official, there is, quote, every indication, unquote, that Russia

is privately mobilizing for war.

While, of course, publicly offering to talk.

As the official tells CNN, the Russian claims of pulling forces back from Ukraine and de-escalating,

while they're all false, they say, when, in fact, Putin's amassed approximately 7,000

more troops at Ukraine's borders in just recent days.

These new build-up estimates would now place the number of Russian forces that are circling

around Ukraine at around 157,000.

President Biden cited 150,000 estimates just yesterday in his televised address.

So all those videos put out by Russia's Ministry of Defense of Tanks leaving Crimea and

elsewhere, all that talk of troops allegedly returning to home bases.

I got asked.

Was that part of a choreographed scheme by the Kremlin to make it look like Moscow's

...