MOSCOW – February 15 (ONLINE): Russian financial markets rose strongly on Tuesday on a report that Russia was pulling back some troops from near the Ukrainian border, as German Chancellor Olaf Scholz flew into Moscow for Kremlin talks with President Vladimir Putin.
Russian shares and the rouble, which have been hit by fears of impending conflict, rose sharply after Russia’s defence ministry said that some units in military districts adjacent to Ukraine were returning to their bases after completing drills.
It was not immediately clear if that was a tentative signal of any kind of significant pullback.
Russian and Ukrainian government bonds also rallied sharply.
Britain, which with the United States has warned repeatedly that Russia could attack Ukraine at any time, reacted cautiously.
“The Russians have claimed that they have no plans for an invasion, but we will need to see a full scale removal of troops to show that is true,” Foreign Secretary Liz Truss told LBC radio in an interview.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Kyiv would only believe that Russia was moving to de-escalate the situation if Ukraine itself saw that Russian troops were being pulled back. “If we see a withdrawal, we will believe in a de-escalation,” Interfax Ukraine quoted him as saying.
Commercial satellite images taken on Sunday and Monday showed a flurry of Russian military activity at several locations near Ukraine, the private U.S. Company that released the pictures said.
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