The United States and NATO have rejected Russian claims that it had pulled troops back from the Ukraine border, with fresh doubts raised about President Vladimir Putin’s desire to negotiate a political solution to the crisis.
In Ukraine, where people raised flags and played the national anthem to show unity against fears of an invasion, the government said a cyber attack that hit the defence ministry was the worst of its kind that the country had seen. It pointed the finger at Russia, which denied involvement.
Truth or lies? The Russian Defence Ministry Press Service released images and a video showing what it said were army tanks being loaded up for transportation back to their base after drills. NATO says it has seen no reduction in Russian forces on the Ukraine border.Credit:Russian Defence Ministry Press Service via AP
The Russian defence ministry said its forces were pulling back after exercises in southern and western military districts near Ukraine. It published video footage and photos that it said showed tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and self-propelled artillery units leaving the Crimean peninsula, which Moscow seized from Ukraine in 2014.
However, both US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Russian units were moving towards the border, not away from it.
“There’s what Russia says … and then there’s what Russia does,” said Blinken.
“We continue to see critical units moving toward the border, not away from the border. We need to see these forces moving away.”
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg says Russia’s invasion force on the Ukraine border is as strong as ever.Credit:Bloomberg
A senior Western intelligence official said Russian military exercises were at their peak and the risk of Russian aggression against Ukraine would remain high.
Stoltenberg said a pullout would be welcome, but that moving troops and tanks back and forth did not amount to proof it was really happening.
He said all indications were that Russia was maintaining a “massive invasion force ready to attack”.
“We have not seen any withdrawal of Russian forces. And of course, that contradicts the message of diplomatic efforts,” Stoltenberg said in Brussels at a meeting of NATO defence ministers.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg says Russia’s invasion force on the Ukraine border is as strong as ever.Credit:Bloomberg
“What we see is that they have increased the number of troops and more troops are on their way. So, so far, no de-escalation.”
He said NATO defence ministers had tasked commanders to consider new battle groups in central and south-eastern Europe to prepare for a “new normal” of Russia using military coercion to contest sovereignty in the region.
Even so, Stoltenberg maintained that NATO was not a threat to Russia.
“We are ready for dialogue,” he said. “We have no plans to deploy offensive systems in Ukraine.”
The Kremlin said NATO’s assessment of Russian troop movements was wrong.
Moscow’s ambassador to Ireland said forces in western Russia would be back to their normal positions within three to four weeks.
Russia says it never planned to attack Ukraine but wants to lay down “red lines” to prevent its neighbour from joining NATO, which it sees as a threat to its own security.
The Kremlin said Putin was keen to negotiate with the United States, which has offered discussions on arms control and confidence-building measures while ruling out a veto on future NATO membership for Ukraine.
‘Creating tension’
Russia has accused the United States and Britain of hysterical war propaganda after their repeated warnings of a possible attack, including reports that any offensive would take place on Wednesday.
China, which has cultivated closer ties with Russia as both countries have come under increasing criticism from the West, accused the United States of “playing up the threat of warfare and creating tension”.
Military analysts say a key indicator of a significant pullback will be whether field hospitals and fuel stores are dismantled and units from Russia’s far east, which are taking part in huge exercises in Belarus, return to their bases thousands of miles away.
Western officials continued to maintain that there was nothing “normal” about field hospitals being deployed for routine military exercises.
Day of unity
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also said he did not see any sign of a Russian troop withdrawal.
“When the troops do withdraw, everyone will see that, but for now it’s just a statement,” the BBC quoted him as saying during a visit to western Ukraine.
Zelensky designated Wednesday a patriotic holiday in response to Western media reports that Russia could invade on that day.
“No one can love our home as we can. And only we, together, can protect our home,” he said.
The Ukraine defence ministry said hackers were still bombarding its website and had succeeded in finding vulnerabilities in the programming code. Traffic was being rerouted to servers in the United States while the issue was being fixed, it said.
A senior Ukrainian security official said the only country interested in such cyber attacks was Russia. The Kremlin denied involvement.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin had “taken note” of a request from Russia’s parliament on Tuesday to recognise the “independence” of two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine where Russian-backed separatists have been fighting Ukrainian government forces since 2014.
Peskov said any recognition would not be in line with the 2014-15 Minsk agreements aimed at ending the conflict, in which Ukraine says some 15,000 people have been killed.
The comment appeared to indicate that Putin would not rush into recognising the separatist areas but might keep such an option in reserve.
Blinken said Russian recognition for the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk republics would undermine Ukraine’s sovereignty, violate international law and call into question Russia’s commitment to continue to engage in diplomacy.
He said it would “necessitate a swift and firm response from the United States in full co-ordination with our allies and partners”.
Reuters
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