On Thursday morning, Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine accused government forces of opening fire on their territory four times in the past 24 hours.
The Ukrainian military inturn accused the rebels of the attack. Such incidents are frequent and have occurred many times over the past eight years. There has been no independent verification of these claims.
Ukrainians, in a show of defiance of a feared Russian invasion, displayed a national show of flag-waving unity Wednesday responding to call by the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Added presence, not a pull-back
Responding to reports of a pull back of troops, US officials reported that Russia has increased its troop presence along the Ukrainian border by as many as 7,000, with some arriving as recently as Wednesday.
“We haven’t seen a pullback,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told ABC News.
UK’s Armed Forces Minister James Heappey said in BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Worryingly what we’ve seen over the last 48 hours is not the reversal that has been announced in Moscow but instead troops continuing to move towards the Ukrainian border”.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg also said the alliance had not seen “any withdrawal of Russian forces.”
Estonia reported on Wednesday that battle groups were moving ahead of a likely attack to occupy "key terrain," contradicting Moscow's insistence of a pullback as reported by Reuters.
Maxar Technologies, a commercial satellite imagery company that has been monitoring the Russian buildup, reported continued heightened military activity near Ukraine. It also indicated that some forces had left an airfield in Belarus, a Russian ally, but it was unclear where they went.
Russian defence ministry said in a statement on Thursday morning that Russia's tank army units from the Western Military District have started returning to their permanent bases after "the completion of planned exercises on training grounds". A video that showed tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, and self-propelled artillery units leaving the Crimean Peninsula, which Moscow seized from Ukraine in 2014 was also published by Russia.
Putin has signaled that he wants a peaceful path out of the crisis. His country has repeatedly complained that the U.S. and NATO have not responded satisfactorily in writing to its security concerns.
-Reuters/AP