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But it also announced that some units from Russia’s Western Military District and Southern Military District were loading equipment onto rail cars to return to base after completing military exercises, in line with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu’s report to Putin Monday that some drills were ending and others would end soon.
U.S. and NATO officials have repeatedly called on Russia to draw down its 130,000 strong military force near Ukraine’s borders, warning that Russia has all the pieces in place for a major attack on Ukraine.
After Russian President Vladimir Putin Monday left the door open to continued dialogue over his demands for an end to NATO expansion, including barring Ukraine from the alliance, State Department spokesman Ned Price called for Russian de-escalation first.
“We have not seen any meaningful, real sign of de-escalation,” he told reporters Monday.
Questions remain about Moscow’s intentions, with Kremlin officials, diplomats and military officials sending contradictory messages, keeping Western leaders off balance when trying to gauge if Putin will give the order to invade Ukraine and when it might happen.
After an earlier military build-up on Ukraine’s borders last spring, Russia withdrew its forces, but left significant amounts of military equipment in place, according to Ukraine officials.
The State Department late Monday issued an alert urging U.S. citizens to immediately depart Belarus and Transnistria, a breakaway region of Moldova near Ukraine, because of Russian military activity in the vicinity. The department earlier that day relocated all remaining U.S. Embassy personnel in Kyiv to the far western city of Lviv, near the border with Poland, because of what Secretary of State Antony Blinken said was “the dramatic acceleration in the buildup of Russian forces” on the Ukrainian border and mounting U.S. fears of an invasion.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby on Monday declined to put a specific number on the Russian troop buildup over the past 24 to 48 hours but said that “should [Putin] choose to invade again, he is doing all the things you would expect him to do to make sure he’s ready for that option.”
Eleventh-hour diplomatic efforts are continuing, with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who met Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv Monday, in Moscow Tuesday for talks with the Russian president. It will be his first meeting with Putin since taking office in December.
Scholz has said that he will use his trip to underscore to Putin that any attack on Ukraine would have “serious political, economic and geostrategic consequences for Russia,” but has refrained from saying that in the event of an invasion, Germany would halt Nord Stream 2, the controversial gas pipeline between Russia and Germany which is awaiting regulatory approval.
While Scholz said “all options are on the table” when it comes to sanctions, he has not mentioned the name of the pipeline since December.
German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock Tuesday described the situation as “extremely dangerous.”
“At the borders with Ukraine, the fate of an entire country and its people is at stake at the moment due to the Russian troop deployment,” she said, adding that it was “up to the government in Moscow to withdraw the troops and create full transparency.”
Andriy Melnyk, Ukraine’s ambassador in Berlin, called on Scholz to issue a “crisp and clear ultimatum to Mr. Putin.” Speaking to German media, he said Ukraine expected Scholz to “bang on the notorious long table in the Kremlin to talk Mr. Putin to bring reason and bury his insane plans of conquest.”
Italy’s foreign minister is due in Kyiv on Tuesday, and Poland’s top diplomat is set to meet with his Russian counterpart in Moscow the same day.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has expressed frustration over the grim warnings from Western officials about an imminent Russian invasion, which have taken a toll on Ukraine’s economy. On Monday, he declared Feb. 16 — the day some media reports have suggested Russia will invade — a national day of unity, calling on citizens to fly flags and sing the national anthem together in the morning.
The State Department said Monday that Washington is offering a sovereign loan guarantee of up to $1 billion to support Ukraine’s economic reform agenda and soften any blow caused by investor panic about a possible Kremlin attack. Germany’s Scholz also announced a new, rapidly accessible loan of about $170 million while in Kyiv on Monday.
Meanwhile, Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, suggested to Putin during an apparently choreographed meeting that despite their differences, talks with the United States and NATO should continue, although “they should not be endless.”
“We are committed to explaining why we are right, and that we are ready to listen to serious counter arguments,” Lavrov said, according to a Kremlin-provided transcript.
“It seems to me that our possibilities are far from exhausted,” he added, suggesting that talks with the West should continue, to which Putin replied: “All right.”
Russia has backed separatist militants in Ukraine’s east for the past seven years — and continues to demand that Kyiv implement a 2015 peace deal for the region brokered by France and Germany after Moscow annexed Crimea in 2014.
The Kremlin is also trying to force through a sweeping rewrite of the post-Cold War European security order, demanding that Ukraine be barred from joining NATO and that the Western military alliance remove forces and troops from Eastern Europe. The United States and its NATO partners have rejected the ultimatum.
One effect of Russia’s aggressive stance toward Ukraine has been unifying Western resolve. France, which had previously been more circumspect on the prospect of an imminent attack, said it now seemed Moscow had everything in place for its forces to invade.
“Putin wants to prevent Ukraine from exercising its sovereignty,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on France 5 TV, adding that Russia was seeking a “rump” state that was unable to choose its alliances.
Italy has had fairly warm relations with Russia until recently, but its foreign minister’s trip to Eastern Europe comes as Prime Minister Mario Draghi has emphasized his support for NATO, calling Rome a protagonist in the “Atlantic Alliance.”
Pannett reported from Sydney. Morris reported from Berlin. Missy Ryan in Washington contributed to this report.
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