: Russia Says Some Forces Pulling Back Amid Ukraine Crisis #WorldNEWS Russia said Tuesday that some units participating in military exercises would begin returning to their bases, adding to glimmers

Russia Says Some Forces Pulling Back Amid Ukraine Crisis #WorldNEWS
Russia said Tuesday that some units participating in military exercises would begin returning to their bases, adding to glimmers of hope that the Kremlin may not be planning to invade Ukraine imminently, though it gave no details on the pullback.
The announcement came a day after Russias foreign minister indicated the country was ready to keep talking about the security grievances that led to the Ukraine crisis—changing the tenor after weeks of rising tensions. Still, Western officials continued to warn that an invasion could come at any moment and said some forces and military hardware were moving toward the border, muddying the picture.
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It wasn’t immediately clear where exactly the troops that the Russian Defense Ministry said were pulling back were deployed or how many were leaving, making it hard to understand the significance. The announcement pushed world markets and the ruble up, but Ukraines leaders expressed skepticism.
“Russia constantly makes various statements, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said. That’s why we have the rule: We won’t believe when we hear, we’ll believe when we see. When we see troops pulling out, we’ll believe in de-escalation. ”
Russia has massed more than 130,000 troops near Ukraine, sparking the fears of an invasion. Russia denies it has any plans to invade Ukraine, despite placing troops on Ukraine’s borders to the north, south and east and launching massive military drills nearby.
The new glimmers of hope accompanied a flurry of diplomacy. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz planned to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, a day after he sat down with Ukraines leader in Kyiv. Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau of Poland, one of Russias most strident European critics, was also in Moscow on Tuesday to meet Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, while Ukraines foreign minister hosted his Italian counterpart.
Lavrovs comments came at a made-for-TV meeting with Putin and seemed designed to send a message to the world about the Russian leaders position. The foreign minister argued that Moscow should hold more talks, despite the West’s refusal to consider Russia’s main demands.
The talks “can’t go on indefinitely, but I would suggest to continue and expand them at this stage,” Lavrov said, noting that Washington has offered to discuss limits for missile deployments in Europe, restrictions on military drills and other confidence-building measures.
Moscow wants guarantees that NATO will not allow Ukraine and other former Soviet countries to join as members. It also wants the alliance to halt weapons deployments to Ukraine and roll back its forces from Eastern Europe.