BRUSSELS (Dispatches) - NATO accused Russia on Wednesday of sending more troops to a massive military build-up around Ukraine, even as Moscow said that it was withdrawing forces and was open to diplomacy.
Separately, a senior Western intelligence official alleged that Russian military exercises were at their peak stage and the risk of Russian aggression against Ukraine would remain high for the rest of February.
At the start of two days of talks among NATO defense ministers, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg appeared unconvinced the threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine had lessened, and voiced guarded hopes for diplomacy.
“We have not seen any withdrawal of Russian forces. And of course, that contradicts the message of diplomatic efforts,” Stoltenberg said. “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.”
Moscow wants to stop the former Soviet state from ever joining the NATO military alliance. NATO has refused to concede that demand and defense ministers sought to show a united front on Wednesday.
The Russian defense ministry published video that it said showed tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and self-propelled artillery units leaving the Crimean peninsula, which Moscow seized from Ukraine in 2014.
Stoltenberg cautioned that Russia has frequently repositioned military equipment and troops during the build-up.
NATO is considering new steps to deter Russia on its eastern flank on Wednesday, in response to the Russian threat in Ukraine’s north, east and south.
On Wednesday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova in a fiery statement said that her country’s troops were pulling back following the completion of exercises near the border with Ukraine, Moscow insisted that predictions it could be just moments away from ordering a full-blown invasion have been proven false.
Zakharova poured scorn on weeks of reports and claims from U.S. and European officials that Moscow’s armed forces could be just hours away from launching a strike against its neighbor, RT reported.
“February 15, 2022 will go down in history as the day Western war propaganda failed,” she wrote.
According to her, the West has been “shamed and destroyed without firing a single shot”.
Zakharova has also jokingly asked American and British media outlets to release a schedule of Russia’s “upcoming invasions” of Ukraine for the current year.
“I’d like to request U.S. and British disinformation: Bloomberg, The New York Times and The Sun media outlets to publish the schedule for our upcoming invasions for the year. I’d like to plan my vacation,” the Russian diplomat noted on her Telegram channel Wednesday.
At the same time, the Moscow’s Ministry of Defense announced that a number of Russian troops had finished their training exercises in Belarus, close to the Ukrainian border, and will begin the process of withdrawing.