The United States and NATO has rejected Russia’s claim that it has withdrawn some units from Ukraine‘s border.
On Thursday, Russia’s Defense Ministry published a video it said showed troops and military equipment returning from Crimea to their permanent bases after drills.
The US and NATO however says Russia ws still building up troops around Ukraine despite Moscow’s insistence it was pulling back.
“We now know it was false,” a US official said, adding that as many as 7,000 Russian troops have joined the 150,000 already near the border in recent days.
“We haven’t seen a pullback,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told ABC News.
Russian President Vladimir Putin “can pull the trigger. He can pull it today. He can pull it tomorrow. He can pull it next week. The forces are there if he wants to renew aggression against Ukraine.”
US President Joe Biden and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke at length in a phone call on Wednesday, saying the situation remains “extremely serious” and there was still a risk of Russian military aggression.
Withdrawal claims dismissed
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg also dismissed suggestions that the threat on Ukraine’s border had diminished.
“Moscow has made it clear that it is prepared to contest the fundamental principles that have underpinned our security for decades and to do so by using force,” he said.
“I regret to say that this is the new normal in Europe.”
US-based Maxar Technologies says satellite images show Russia has pulled back some military equipment. However, it said other hardware had arrived and that Russia still has a lot of forces and equipment near its border with Ukraine.
European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said the EU would remain vigilant, and that Russia’s claims of a withdrawal did not match the reality on the ground.
“We hear claims from Russia about pulling back troops but we have not seen any sign of de-escalation on the ground. To the contrary, the build-up continues,” she told reporters in Brussels ahead of an extraordinary EU summit to discuss the crisis.
Germany’s defense minister cautious over Russian claims
Berlin has yet to see “verifiable evidence” of Russia deescalating the Ukraine crisis, German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht told DW.
She also said that Russia would need to recall troops that would actually be used in the event of an invasion from the Ukraine border.
“One cannot assume this would be done in a few hours,” she said. “We haven’t seen this movement yet.”
Commenting on Ukraine’s efforts to join NATO and Moscow’s fierce opposition to the idea, Lambrecht said NATO should not close its doors to Kyiv.
“The decision on whether to apply or not apply must be made by Ukraine,” she said. “This [right] cannot be abandoned during the negotiation process.”
Moscow to publicly respond to US security proposal
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the Kremlin will send a response to the US proposal on European security by the end of the day, and make it public.
“I believe you will learn very quickly about how the situation will develop further,” Lavrov told reporters at a press conference, adding it was “absolutely necessary that relevant civil society groups in our two countries know” what Russia’s stance is.
He also said that Russia will end its military drills on February 20, as scheduled. At the same time, he said that questions about the Ukraine crisis ending at that time should be addressed to Western leaders.
“This situation is not developing here, on Russian territory, it is developing in Western minds, the brains and media outlets, most of all in those of the US and the UK,” Lavrov said.
Britain says Putin could drag out crisis
British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said Russian President Vladimir Putin could drag out the Ukraine crisis for months.
“We must have no illusions that Russia could drag this out much longer in a brazen ploy to spend weeks more, if not months, subverting Ukraine and challenging Western unity,” Truss wrote in The Daily Telegraph newspaper.
She added there was, “no evidence the Russians are withdrawing.”
Meanwhile, her colleague, Armed Forces minister James Heappey, said Britain had finished its military training activities in Ukraine.
He said the only remaining UK troops in the country are there to protect the ambassador.
Ukraine denies shelling separatists in the east
Ukraine has dismissed Russian-backed separatists’ claims that they were shelling their territory on Thursday.
“Despite the fact that our positions were fired on with prohibited weapons, including 122 mm artillery, Ukrainian troops did not open fire in response,” a duty press officer of the Ukrainian Join Forces Operation told the Reuters news agency.
Earlier, the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic told the Russian news agency RIA that Ukrainian forces used mortars, grenade launchers, and machine guns.
“Armed forces of Ukraine have crudely violated the ceasefire regime, using heavy weapons, which, according to the Minsk agreements, should be withdrawn,” the Luhansk People’s Republic said.
The Minsk agreement was signed in 2015 to halt the fighting in Ukraine’s eastern Donbass region.
The peace agreement’s terms, however, were never properly implemented, and sporadic shooting has been reported in the rebel-held regions from both sides in recent years.
Russia voices ‘deep concern’ over alleged Donbass flareup
After pro-Russian rebels claimed Ukrainian forces were shelling their positions in the breakaway regions in east Ukraine, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow was “watching closely.”
“This is a cause of very deep concern,” he said. “We have warned more than once that excessive concentration of Ukrainian armed forces immediately next to the separation line, combined with possible provocations, could create a horrible danger.”
At the same time, he said that the situation at the border between Ukraine and Russia was “stable” despite the growth of tensions in Donbass. The Kremlin spokesman also said Moscow had no plans to discuss the alleged fighting in the rebel-controlled areas with Kyiv.
‘Time to act like adults’
German lawmaker and army lieutenant Falko Drossmann said Berlin was taking Russia’s concerns seriously but did not want to talk under armed threat.
“The message is clear: Put the guns away and then we can talk about what you want, but you can’t put 100,000 troops there, like thousands of troops in Belarus and then say, Now let’s negotiate. That’s not the way we behave. All options are on the table, and Russia knows this. So retreat the troops and then we can talk about everything.”
He described the posturing around Ukraine as a “horrible game.”
“And I think in our opinion, it’s time now to retreat the troops and well, you know, to act like adults again,” he told DW.
lo/rt (AFP, AP, Reuters)
Ukraine latest: Russia claims new withdrawals from Crimea
Source: Pinoy Pop News
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