Senior US official states that Russia falsely claims to withdraw troops

As Moscow officially states that its troops are being moved from the borders of Ukraine after finishing several military exercises, the West believes that the claims are false and that Russia could invade Ukraine "at any moment", despite lack of evidence to back this hypothesis.

"Russia must take real steps toward de-escalation" was the strong shared opinion of both US President Joe Biden and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

Moreover, senior White House official commented for the journalists, as stating that more troops have arrived on Wednesday:

“[Russia] was withdrawing troops from the border with Ukraine. They received a lot of attention for that claim, both here and around the world. But we now know it was false."

On the same note, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky added for the BBC:

"We don't see any troop withdrawal yet, we just heard about it."

On the other hand, even if more than 100.000 troops have been present at the Ukrainian borders, Russia says that the US invasion related concerns are nothing more than “hysteria”.

Jens Stoltenberg, NATO Secretary-General, commented that there is no real proof that troops from Moscow are truly de-escalating. This is why the alliance aims to set up new battle units across central and south-eastern Europe. France wants to lead a unit of this type in Romania, he added.
However, no final decision has been taken so far.

Stoltenberg also described this crisis as the most serious security issue since the Cold War.

In response, Stoltenberg's statements have been ranked by the Russian foreign ministry as "no longer interesting".

Can diplomacy still solve the crisis?

This question is on everybody’s lips as NATO calls for dialogue to solve tensions and avoid armed conflict in the area. Meanwhile, Putin says he’s “ready for talks”, yet the West believes this is all a “false sense of security” strategy.

"This includes sightings of additional armoured vehicles, helicopters and a field hospital moving towards Ukraine's borders.

Russia has the military mass in place to conduct an invasion of Ukraine", defence intelligence chief Lt-Gen Jim Hockenhull also added.

As Vladimir Putin claims that he does not desire war with Ukraine, but wants NATO not to welcome Ukraine in its structures, as he sees constant threat in the expansion of the alliance, NATO has already rejected the Russian demand, despite Ukraine not yet applying for its membership.

Source: bbc.com