BRUSSELS/MOSCOW (dpa-AFX) – The West has expressed serious doubts about the partial withdrawal of troops announced by Russia to ease the Ukraine conflict. “So far we haven’t seen any de-escalation on the ground. On the contrary: Russia seems to be continuing the military build-up,” said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in Brussels on Wednesday. The United States also saw no signs of an end to the deployment of Russian soldiers on the Ukrainian border. On the other hand, the Ministry of Defense in Moscow tried to counter Western concerns with a video of the withdrawal of its own soldiers from the Crimean peninsula, which was annexed by Russia.
Once again, Russia and the West accused each other of being responsible for the escalation of the conflict. In Moscow, the Security Council criticized that the United States had stationed 60,000 troops, 200 tanks and 150 combat aircraft in Europe to deter Russia. This is what the deputy secretary of the Security Council, Mikhail Popov, told the government newspaper “Rossiyskaya Gazeta”.
The West, on the other hand, has been concerned for weeks about a Russian troop deployment near the Ukrainian border. In addition, the Russian military is holding several maneuvers, including in neighboring Belarus, right on the border with Ukraine. After the exercise, which is scheduled to end on Sunday, all troops would be withdrawn, it said. On Tuesday, Moscow announced the withdrawal of the first troops after the end of maneuvers – sending a signal of relaxation.
On Wednesday, the Defense Ministry reported that soldiers from Crimea had returned to their barracks in the Black Sea. It released a video showing a train with tanks and other military vehicles on the Crimean Bridge. The bridge leads from the peninsula that Russia annexed in 2014 to the Russian mainland. The military is also permanently stationed in Crimea.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken questioned the Russian account on MSNBC. It would be good “if they put their money where their mouth is, but we haven’t seen that until now,” he said. Russian soldiers “remain assembled in a very menacing manner along the Ukrainian border”.
Federal Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht also stressed that it was important not only to withdraw troops that were supposed to be withdrawn anyway. “How serious are these signals, how sustainable are they? That’s what it’s all about.”
NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg made a similar statement. Movements of troops and main battle tanks did not yet prove that there was a real retreat. “They were always moving troops back and forth.” Russia retains the ability to launch a full-scale invasion without any warning, he said.
On the other hand, the Kremlin accused the military alliance of not correctly assessing the situation. The spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, was even clearer: “These statements made by Stoltenberg (…) do not interest us.”
Meanwhile, in Brussels, the defense ministers of the 30 NATO countries were discussing plans for additional deterrence against Russia. The establishment of an additional military presence in the eastern alliance area was already initiated last week. In particular, multinational combat troops are to be stationed in NATO countries south-west of Ukraine, such as Romania.
So far, the so-called battlegroups have only existed in Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia and Poland. According to Stoltenberg, the plans could be implemented this spring.
It is not yet clear whether Germany would take part in a multinational battle group in Romania or another country south-west of Ukraine. Lambrecht emphasized that a decision on a permanent reinforcement of NATO’s eastern flank should only be made in a few months. Decisions about a permanent presence should be made “not in this current situation”, but in the summer “after an intensive examination and then under observation of the situation”, said the SPD politician.
The current strengthening of the eastern flank, for example by sending around 350 additional German soldiers to Lithuania and with Eurofighters for air surveillance, is therefore only temporary and intended as a deterrent to Russia. “It’s the hour of diplomacy again,” said Lambrecht. “We have to keep talking. We are all called upon to prevent a war in the middle of Europe.”
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov confirmed his country’s readiness for a dialogue with the West on security in Europe
– “but not to the detriment” of the fundamental positions of Russia.
He made it clear to journalists that the West has now engaged in dialogue after “we have exacerbated the problem of security in Europe”.
Now there is a willingness to talk about the stationing of short- and medium-range missiles, the transparency of maneuvers and the restoration of contacts between the military of Russia and the NATO countries, Lavrov said.
The conflict is to be the subject of a special meeting of the heads of state and government of the EU member states this Thursday. The foreign ministers of the leading democratic economic powers want to exchange views on the current situation on Saturday on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.
Ukraine celebrated a “Day of National Unity” amid US warnings of a Russian invasion. The national anthem could be heard over many loudspeakers in the capital Kiev. In addition, the national flag was hoisted in many places. President Volodymyr Zelenskyj spoke of an important day for his country. He also visited a maneuver not far from the northwestern Ukrainian city of Rivne./aha/DP/nas