Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he does not want war in Europe. Moscow also said troops were being withdrawn from the Ukrainian border. But the United States and the Western military alliance, NATO, say the opposite. They claim that Russia is still strengthening its military presence around Ukraine. Khabar Al Jazeera.
As tensions in Europe escalated over the deployment of Russian troops on the Ukrainian border, the announcement of the withdrawal of Russian troops raised hopes in the minds of Westerners. However, Russia and NATO later claimed that this was not happening at all. In the meantime, cyber attacks have been launched on several websites, including the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense. Moscow is being blamed for the attack.
In an interview with US media outlet SSNBC, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said, “Russia does one thing and does another. And we didn’t see anything like withdrawing their troops. ‘
The same goes for NATO. NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg has said that the withdrawal of Russian troops and tanks did not prove the point. “We have seen that Russia has increased its troop numbers and more troops are on the way,” he said before attending a meeting in Brussels, Belgium. So, the crisis is not over yet.
Jens Stoltenberg said NATO would be able to prove that Russia failed to withdraw troops through satellite imagery. He also said that it was in conflict with the message that diplomatic efforts were being made to reduce tensions.
The first announcement of the withdrawal of Russian troops from the Ukrainian border came last Tuesday. Later on Wednesday, Moscow said more troops had been withdrawn from Crimea. A video related to this has been released. There, military equipment, including tanks and armored vehicles, was being removed from Crimea.
Meanwhile, the Kremlin has called NATO’s demand for troop withdrawal wrong. Russia’s ambassador to Ireland says troops deployed to western Russia will return to their normal positions in three to four weeks.
Russia has long deployed troops along the Ukrainian border. The West claims that Moscow’s move is an attack on the country. Russia has denied the allegations in a statement issued Friday stating “Similar, baseless allegations concerning Russia’s intelligence have been made more than once. However, there are concerns over Ukraine’s readiness to join NATO. Russia considers Ukraine’s accession to NATO a threat to its security.