21 minutes ago now. NP but Ukraine.

Tue Feb 15 17:06:50 UTC 2022

LIVEUpdated
Feb. 15, 2022, 11:43 a.m. ET19 minutes ago
19 minutes ago
Live Updates: Putin Says Russia Is Partially Pulling Back Troops From
Around Ukraine

The announcement was a sign that Russia might be trying to de-escalate the
military standoff on the Ukrainian border. Although Putin said Russia was
“ready to continue on the negotiating track,” it was far from clear that
the threat of war had passed.

Here’s what you need to know:

   -

   Putin says some Russian troops are returning to their bases and talks
   should continue.

   <https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/02/15/world/russia-ukraine-news?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=World%20News#russia-says-some-troops-are-returning-to-their-bases-but-other-large-scale-military-drills-continue>
   -

   Russian lawmakers ask for recognition of separatist territories, adding
   to leverage over Ukraine.

   <https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/02/15/world/russia-ukraine-news?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=World%20News#russian-lawmakers-ask-for-recognition-of-separatist-territories-adding-to-leverage-over-ukraine>
   -

   In photos: A road trip through a Ukraine searching for its identity.

   <https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/02/15/world/russia-ukraine-news?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=World%20News#in-photos-a-road-trip-through-a-ukraine-searching-for-its-identity>
   -

   Germany begins to look beyond Russia for natural gas.

   <https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/02/15/world/russia-ukraine-news?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=World%20News#germany-begins-to-look-beyond-russia-for-natural-gas>
   -

   New satellite images and videos show the scale of Russia’s military
   buildup.

   <https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/02/15/world/russia-ukraine-news?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=World%20News#satellite-images-and-videos-show-the-scale-of-russias-military-buildup>

Putin says some Russian troops are returning to their bases and talks
should continue.
<https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/02/15/world/russia-ukraine-news?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=World%20News#russia-says-some-troops-are-returning-to-their-bases-but-other-large-scale-military-drills-continue>
Video
0:40Russian Defense Official Says Some Troops Are Leaving Ukraine Border
Russia’s Defense Ministry said that some troops were sent back to their
home bases, but that large-scale military drills would continue. U.S.
officials said they were still assessing Russia’s troop announcement.Credit
Credit...Sergey Pivovarov/Reuters

MOSCOW — President Vladimir V. Putin said on Tuesday that Russia had
decided “to partially pull back troops” as the Defense Ministry announced
that some forces from military districts bordering Ukraine were being sent
back to their garrisons, a tentative sign that Russia could be stepping
away from the threat of an invasion.

The announcement was the strongest signal yet that Russia might be trying
to de-escalate the military standoff near the Ukrainian border, but it was
far from clear that the threat of war had passed.

Speaking at the Kremlin after meeting with Chancellor Olaf Scholz of
Germany, Mr. Putin said Russia would keep pushing for its central demands
of a rollback of the NATO presence in Eastern Europe and a guarantee that
Ukraine never join the alliance.

“We are also ready to continue on the negotiating track, but all these
questions, as has been said before, must be viewed comprehensively,” Mr.
Putin said.

It couldn’t be determined how many troops were being pulled back, and a
Defense Ministry spokesman, Igor Konashenkov, said that some military exercises
that have raised fears of an attack against Ukraine — including in Belarus
and in the Black Sea — were continuing.

U.S. officials said they were still assessing Russia’s troop announcement,
and the NATO secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, said that members of the
alliance “have not seen any sign of de-escalation.” Mr. Stoltenberg added
that Russia has moved forces around before while leaving heavy weapons in
place.

Still, Mr. Putin’s comments added to signs that Moscow was willing to
pursue its objectives through negotiations rather than launch immediate
military action. When asked about how Russia would act next, Mr. Putin
responded with a slight smile: “According to the plan.”

He said Russia would seek to achieve its key aims but that the outcome of
the process “does not only depend on us.”

“We intend to and will strive to reach agreement with our partners on the
questions that we posed, in order to solve them by taking a diplomatic
path,” Mr. Putin said.

Earlier Tuesday, Moscow added to its leverage in talks when lawmakers in
Russia’s Kremlin-backed lower house of Parliament on Tuesday asked Mr.
Putin to recognize breakaway states in eastern Ukraine as independent,
raising fears that Russia could use such recognition to move more of its
military into the areas.

Mr. Putin said at the news conference that he would not immediately
recognize their independence.

On Monday, Defense Minister Sergei K. Shoigu appeared to characterize
Russia’s enormous troop buildup around Ukraine as part of “large-scale
drills” being carried out by the military. He told Mr. Putin in a
stage-managed meeting broadcast on state television that some of those
drills were now ending.

Then on Tuesday, Mr. Konashenkov said in a televised statement that some
troops of the southern and western military districts had “completed their
tasks” and were heading back to their bases. Russian state television aired
footage of tanks being loaded onto rail cars, describing it as images of
troops headed back to their garrisons.
Map: Where Russian Troops Are Positioned Around Ukraine

An estimated 130,000 Russian troops are in position on Ukraine’s northern,
eastern and southern sides.
<https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/world/europe/ukraine-maps.html>

The troops that Mr. Konashenkov said are being pulled back are from the
military districts closest to Ukraine — meaning they would remain
relatively close to the country even if they are pulled back to their
bases. His statement indicated that troops that have arrived in the region
from farther away — Siberia and Russia’s Far East — would remain deployed
near Ukraine for now.

Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said that there was reason to be
skeptical of Moscow’s statements.

“When we see the withdrawal, we will believe in de-escalation,” Mr. Kuleba
told reporters during a video briefing from Kyiv.

The Kremlin spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, characterized the troop movements
as routine, and continued to describe Western warnings of Russia’s military
buildup as overblown. Moscow had always intended that when the drills were
over, “troops move back to their barracks,” he said. “This is what is
happening this time too — there is nothing new.”

But Russia continued to shift away from its more pessimistic official
rhetoric of recent weeks.

Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov, speaking at a news conference, said that
in ongoing talks, the West had “responded positively to initiatives that it
had for a long time rejected.”

“I think that thanks to efforts in all these areas, it will be possible to
come up with a very decent, comprehensive package result,” Mr. Lavrov said.

— Anton Troianovski <https://www.nytimes.com/by/anton-troianovski>, Andrew
E. Kramer <https://www.nytimes.com/by/andrew-e-kramer>, Steven Erlanger
<https://www.nytimes.com/by/steven-erlanger> and Eric Schmitt
<https://www.nytimes.com/by/eric-schmitt>
Russian lawmakers ask for recognition of separatist territories, adding to
leverage over Ukraine.
<https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/02/15/world/russia-ukraine-news?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=World%20News#russian-lawmakers-ask-for-recognition-of-separatist-territories-adding-to-leverage-over-ukraine>
[image: The city of Donetsk, Ukraine, which is held by Russian-backed
separatists.]
Image
[image: The city of Donetsk, Ukraine, which is held by Russian-backed
separatists.]
The city of Donetsk, Ukraine, which is held by Russian-backed separatists.
Credit...Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters

In a sign that Russia was prepared to keep the pressure on Ukraine despite
reportedly pulling back some troops from border areas, its
Kremlin-controlled lower house of Parliament, the State Duma, passed a
resolution on Tuesday requesting that President Vladimir V. Putin recognize
the Russian-backed separatist territories in Ukraine’s east as independent
states.

Such a move would represent Russia’s abandonment of the 2015 peace plan for
those territories, and could raise the risk of warfare between Russia and
Ukraine. The separatists claim all of Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk regions
as their territory, but control only about one-third of those lands.

Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of the Duma, said the resolution would be
signed and transmitted to Mr. Putin “without delay.”

The resolution in effect gives Mr. Putin another bargaining chip in his
talks with Western leaders and another point of leverage over Ukraine. In a
news conference with Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany on Tuesday, Mr.
Putin repeated false claims that Ukraine is carrying out a “genocide”
against Russian speakers in the region, known as the Donbas, but indicated
that he would not immediately recognize the territories’ independence.

Instead, Mr. Putin said that he would keep pushing for implementation of the
 Minsk peace accords
<https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/08/world/russia-ukraine-minsk-accords.html>
 negotiated by Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France in 2015. In their
Russian interpretation, the accords would in effect rule out NATO
membership for Ukraine by allowing Russian-backed proxies in eastern
Ukraine to veto foreign-policy decisions.

Western diplomats dispute Russia’s interpretation of the accords, but they
see their implementation as one way out of the current crisis.

“We must do everything to solve the problems of the Donbas, but we must do
this, as the federal chancellor said, by working from the not fully
realized possibilities of the implementation of the Minsk agreements,” Mr.
Putin said, referring to Mr. Scholz.

Jens Stoltenberg, NATO’s secretary general, said that if Russia did
recognize Donetsk and Luhansk it would be “a blatant violation of Ukrainian
sovereignty again,” as well as a violation of international law and of the
Minsk agreement.

“There is no doubt that Donetsk and Luhansk are part of Ukraine within
internationally recognized borders,” Mr. Stoltenberg told reporters in
Brussels.

— Anton Troianovski <https://www.nytimes.com/by/anton-troianovski> and Steven
Erlanger <https://www.nytimes.com/by/steven-erlanger>
For Ukrainian Soldiers, a Nervous Guessing Game on the Front
Jan. 25, 2022
<https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/25/world/europe/ukraine-russia-frontline.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article>
ADVERTISEMENTContinue reading the main story
<https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/02/15/world/russia-ukraine-news?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=World%20News#after-dfp-ad-mid1>