Speaking after talks with his Polish counterpart Zbigniew Rau in Moscow, Lavrov rejected reports that Moscow is planning to invade Ukraine, describing it as “media terrorism.”
On Tuesday, the Kremlin described US allegations that Russia is about to invade Ukraine as “baseless hysteria”.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that President Vladimir Putin “prefers that Russia and the West discuss their concerns calmly, and does not want to see any media campaigns that increase tension,” according to “Reuters”.
Back to the rules
For its part, the Russian Defense Ministry confirmed, on Tuesday, that some forces in the military areas bordering Ukraine “began to return to their bases after completing exercises”, in a step that would ease the dispute between Moscow and the West.
“Large-scale maneuvers are continuing across the country, but some units in the southern and western military regions have completed their training and started returning to their bases,” a ministry spokesman said in a video clip.
Video footage released by the Ministry of Defense showed the loading of some tanks and other armored vehicles onto railway cars.
The Interfax news agency quoted Ukraine’s Foreign Minister, Dmytro Kuleba, as saying that Kiev “will not believe in de-escalation until it sees the withdrawal of Russian forces.”
The report quoted Kuleba as saying, “We constantly hear different statements from the Russian Federation, so we have a rule. We only believe what we see. If we see the withdrawal, we will believe the de-escalation.”
Russia has massed more than 100,000 of its forces near the Ukrainian border, raising fears of an invasion of Ukraine, especially since the joint exercises Moscow is conducting with Belarus between February 10 and 20 mean that the Russian army is almost encircling Ukraine.