Generalizing the notion of the almost free group we introduce almost Butler groups. An almost $B_2$-group $G$ of singular cardinality is a $B_2$-group. Since almost $B_2$-groups have preseparative chains, the same result in regular cardinality holds under the additional hypothesis that $G$ is a $B_1$-group. Some other results characterizing $B_2$-groups within the classes of almost $B_1$-groups and almost $B_2$-groups are obtained. A theorem of stating that a group $G$ of weakly compact cardinality $\lambda $ having a $\lambda $-filtration consisting of pure $B_2$-subgroup is a $B_2$-group appears as a corollary.