Western Officials Say Russian Claim of Pullback From Ukraine Border Is False
Russia maintained it was continuing to pull troops back from positions near Ukraine, but the United States and Britain said the military buildup was continuing.
The U.S. on Wednesday accused Russia of lying about pulling back troops from Ukraine’s borders, saying that Moscow has added more than 7,000 combatants in recent days, and that there was fresh evidence it was mobilizing for war.
The claim, by a senior administration official who spoke to reporters on Wednesday evening, came as other Western allies expressed similar doubts that Russia was backing away from a military confrontation.
British military officials also said on Wednesday that they had spotted Russian armored vehicles, helicopters and a field hospital moving toward Ukraine’s border.
The senior Biden administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss recent intelligence findings, said intelligence officials have confirmed that the troop increase continued on Wednesday, after President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia declared that with exercises over, some troops were returning to barracks.
“Contrary to their claims, Russia continues to build up military capabilities near Ukraine,” Lt. Gen. Jim Hockenhull, the British chief of defense intelligence, said in a statement. “Russia has the military mass in place to conduct an invasion of Ukraine.”
If accurate, the Biden administration’s claims would suggest that the hopes in the past 48 hours that Russia was veering toward a diplomatic solution to the crisis may have been premature.
But it also puts the U.S. once again at direct odds with Mr. Putin’s government, amid new warnings from Washington that the world should expect that Moscow will attempt to create an incident that could be the pretext for launching an invasion.
The American official gave no timeline for Russian action. But he rejected claims by Mr. Putin that there has been a reduction in forces.
“They received a lot of attention for that claim both here and around the world,” the official said. “But we now know it was false.”
At the Pentagon on Wednesday, analysts were poring over new satellite imagery and other intelligence. Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has been personally involved in drilling down on a range of possible Russian attack scenarios, officials said, pressing analysts for details such as the location and combat readiness of specific ground units, ship movements and the intentions of those forces. General Milley regularly updates President Biden on the fast-moving developments, officials said.
On Tuesday, Mr. Biden said there were “over 150,000” Russian troops on Ukraine’s borders. It was not clear if that figure included the 7,000 who the administration claimed on Wednesday night were streaming into the area, even as satellite pictures show some troops in the area around Crimea, which Mr. Putin annexed in 2014, apparently withdrawing to nearby bases.
The official also said that in recent days the U.S. had seen false claims from Russia about NATO activities, fake reports of unmarked graves of civilians in Eastern Ukraine allegedly killed by Ukrainian forces, and claims that the United States and its allies are developing chemical or biological weapons.
“Each of these allegations is categorically false,” the official said. “And we should expect more false reports from Russian state media over the coming days.”
The official said Russian statements of a desire to engage in diplomacy should not be taken at face value.
“Their actions indicate otherwise,” the official said.
Earlier on Wednesday, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said in an interview with ABC News that Russian forces continue to “mass at the border.”
NATO’s secretary general said the alliance had not seen any signs of Russian military de-escalation on Ukraine’s border, and that NATO defense ministers would consider stationing additional troops in central and southeastern member states.CreditCredit…Kenzo Tribouillard/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
“Unfortunately there’s a difference between what Russia says and what it does,” Mr. Blinken said in an interview with ABC News. “And what we’re seeing is no meaningful pullback.”
Mikk Marran, the director general of the Estonian Foreign Intelligence Service, also said on Wednesday that the Russian forces on the border appeared to be larger than previous public estimates, which had been around 130,000 troops before Mr. Biden put the figure at over 150,000.
“The Russian Armed Forces are ready to attack at any moment. We are counting around 150,000 to 170,000 troops,” Mr. Marran said. “Russia has the full combat support system needed for action in place. And we also see that the Air Force and the Black Sea Fleet are ready to support the attack.”
The new evidence of buildup came as European diplomats and leaders, along with Mr. Blinken and Vice President Kamala Harris, prepared to gather in Munich for the annual Munich Security Conference, usually one of the premier diplomatic gatherings of the year. But this year it will be dominated by the Russia-Ukraine crisis.
Russia usually sends a large delegation to the conference. But this year there will be no Russian officials, Moscow has said. It would otherwise be the natural place for American officials to try to find an off-ramp to the crisis with their Russian counterparts.
Ms. Harris, officials said, planned to meet President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine in Munich this weekend, though some European officials said they were wary about the Ukrainian president leaving the country when the U.S. and Britain have said that the Russians are identifying candidates they could install in his place.
An estimated 130,000 Russian troops are in position on Ukraine’s northern, eastern and southern sides.
The Kremlin spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, dismissed NATO’s assessment of troop levels, saying the alliance had not made “a sober evaluation” of the situation.
Russia’s Defense Ministry announced more troop withdrawals on Wednesday, saying that a train loaded with Russian tanks, armored vehicles, and howitzers left Crimea and would return to their bases after concluding military exercises.
A video from the ministry showed a train loaded with armored vehicles crossing into mainland Russia from Crimea, traveling across a vast bridge built to link Crimea and Russia after it annexed the peninsula from Ukraine in 2014.
