Russia says some troops returning to base from Ukraine border

Russia said on Tuesday several military units returned to their base after the training near Ukraine, after the US Days and English warnings that Moscow might attack his neighbors anytime.

It is not clear how many units were withdrawn, and with what distance, after the buildup of around 130,000 Russian troops in the north, east and south of Ukraine.

The news attracted a careful response from Ukraine and England but pushed a sharp rally in the financial market.

“We always say the troops will return to their base after the exercise ends. This is this case too,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

He accused the United States to trigger a crisis by warning repeatedly from the upcoming invasion, to the point where Peskov said President Vladimir Putin had made a joke about it.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Kyiv would only believe that Russia moved to increase the situation if he saw himself that Russian troops were withdrawn.

“If we see a withdrawal, we will believe in de-escalation,” said Interfax Ukraine quoted it.

A spokesman for the Russian Ministry of Defense said that while large-scale exercises throughout the country continued, several South and Western military districts adjacent to Ukraine had completed their training and began to return to the base.

The South Military District said his troops began to withdraw from Crimea and returned to their bases after completing training on the peninsula, which was confiscated by Russia from Ukraine in 2014.

Video recordings published by the Ministry of Defense showed several tanks and other armored vehicles loaded into the train flapcar.

Russian shares, government bonds and ruble, which have been hit by fear of future conflicts, rose sharply, and Ukrainian government bonds also rally.

“February 15, 2022 will go down in history because Western War propaganda fails. Humiliated and destroyed without a shot fired,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Maria Zakharova said.

The latest movements came after a commercial satellite image taken on Sunday and Monday showed the busy activities of Russian military in several locations near Ukraine, according to a private company A.S. which released the pictures.

Maxar Based Technology U.S. Pointing on the arrival of some of the big spread of troops and attacking the helicopter and the new spread of land attack aircraft and combat-bomber jets to continue the location.

The Russian Defense Minister said the previous day that some military exercises were still ongoing, while others have ended and others are wrapping. Together training between Russia and Belarus will end on Sunday.