Russia says withdrawing tanks, military vehicles from Ukraine’s border

MOSCOW, Feb 18 (Agencies): Russia said Friday it had begun withdrawing more tanks and other armoured vehicles from areas near Ukraine's border after running war games that had raised concerns in the West.

"Another military train carrying personnel and military equipment belonging to tank army units of the western military district returned to their permanent bases in the Nizhny Novgorod region after completing scheduled exercises," the Russian defence ministry said in a statement.

Separately, it said 10 Su-24 war planes were redeploying from the Moscow-annexed Crimean peninsula to airfields in other regions.

The Russian drawdowns announced Friday are the latest in a series this week that initially spurred hope for a reduction in tensions between Russia and the West over Ukraine.

The West has accused Moscow of massing tens of thousands of troops both on Crimea and near Ukraine's borders and warned of an imminent Russian attack.

In response to the first announcements of the pullbacks however, Washington said there was no meaningful reduction in troop numbers and said Russia was actually increasing forces around the border.

Tensions have been exacerbated by Russian war games in Belarus, and the strongman leader of that country, Alexander Lukashenko was due in Moscow later Friday for talks with President Vladimir Putin.

An AFP report adds: The United States said Thursday that Russia is on the verge of unleashing a massive military attack against Ukraine, dismissing Moscow's claim to be pulling forces back, as artillery fire hit a Ukrainian kindergarten.

In a dramatic, previously unscheduled speech to the United Nations in New York, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said intelligence showed Moscow could order an assault on its neighbor in the "coming days."

With US and other Western governments saying they see no evidence to support Russia's claim to be withdrawing, Blinken challenged the Kremlin to "announce today with no qualification, equivocation or deflection that Russia will not invade Ukraine. State it clearly. State it plainly to the world."

"Demonstrate it by sending your troops, your tanks, your planes, back to their barracks and hangers, and sending your diplomats to the negotiating table," he said.

Russia denies any invasion plans but warned of "military-technical measures" if its far-reaching demands for a US and NATO pullback from eastern Europe aren't satisfied.

President Joe Biden, at the White House, accused Moscow of preparing a "false flag operation" as a pretext for an attack and said this could happen "in the next several days."

"They have not moved any of their troops out. They've moved more troops in," Biden said. "Every indication we have is that they're prepared to go into Ukraine." He added, however, that diplomacy is not dead. "There is a path. There is a way through this," he said.

Russia has massed enormous air, land and sea forces around Ukraine. President Vladimir Putin and officials say they do not plan to invade Ukraine and that the troops are only conducting practice exercises.

The United States said Thursday that it had received Putin's response to its offers of a diplomatic solution to the crisis, but did not give any reaction to the contents.

The Russian foreign ministry indicated that there was little to discuss.

"In the absence of will on the American side to negotiate firm and legally binding guarantees on our security from the United States and its allies, Russia will be forced to respond, including with military-technical measures," the foreign ministry said.

"We insist on the withdrawal of all US armed forces in Central Europe, Eastern Europe and the Baltics," it added.

Russia also expelled the number two US diplomat in Moscow, the US State Department said, condemning the "unprovoked" action.

Meanwhile, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday that Ukraine had "no need" for foreign allied forces to face down a feared Russian invasion, warning that their presence might only exacerbate tensions.

"We have no need for soldiers with foreign flags on our territory. We are not asking for that. Otherwise, the entire world would be destabilised," the Ukrainian president told the RBK Ukraine website.

"We do not want to give any additional reason for Russia to say we have (foreign) bases here that they need to 'defend' themselves against," he said.

"But we want everything else," Zelensky added in reference to funding and arms delivered from Ukraine's Western allies.

US President Joe Biden has firmly excluded sending soldiers to Ukraine and has urged American citizens to leave immediatly.

Some NATO powers, including Britain, have withdrawn or started withdrawing military personnel they had stationed in Ukraine to train the country's armed forces.