Russian officials indicated that the country would be withdrawing an unspecified number of troops from the Ukrainian border following the completion of military exercises on Tuesday, but officials in Ukraine and the West remain unconvinced that the move represents a sign that Russia will not move forward with a military incursion into its western neighbor.
Russian Major General Igor Konashenkov said in a video posted online that units that have “completed the tasks, have already begun loading onto rail and road transport, and will begin moving to their military garrisons todays.”
It was not immediately clear how many troops would return to their bases; an estimated 130,000 Russian troops are positioned around Ukraine on three sides. Russian officials said other military exercises would continue.
A spokesman for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said “we take these reports very cautiously” and that “any troops moved can quickly be moved back,” according to NBC News.
“We’ll believe it when we see it,” Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said at a news conference. “If we see the withdrawal, we believe in de-escalation.”
Tuesday’s news came one day after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv will relocate to the city of Lyiv in western Ukraine.
“My team and I constantly review the security situation to determine when prudence dictates a change in posture,” Blinken said in a statement on the State Department website. “With that in mind, we are in the process of temporarily relocating our Embassy operations in Ukraine from our Embassy in Kyiv to Lviv due to the dramatic acceleration in the buildup of Russian forces.”
“I have ordered these measures for one reason — the safety of our staff — and we strongly urge any remaining U.S. citizens in Ukraine to leave the country immediately,” added Blinken.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Kremlin claimed the troops were always set to leave after the exercises were completed, and called the U.S. a source of “manic information madness.”
Jake Sullivan, national security adviser to Joe Biden, said on Sunday that Russia could undertake a “major military action” in Ukraine “any day now” including in the coming week, before the end of the Beijing Olympics.
“It is still possible, we believe, that Russia could choose the diplomatic path, but the way they have built up their forces, the way they have maneuvered things in place makes it a distinct possibility that there will be major military action very soon, and we are prepared to continue to work on diplomacy, but we are also prepared to respond in a united and decisive way with our allies and partners should Russia proceed,” he said.