'We are ready to go down the negotiations track'

Putin says Russia not interested in war, raising hopes for diplomatic breakthrough

Moscow calls reports of imminent invasion failed ‘Western war propaganda,’ says it wants to talk security arrangements with NATO, but fears of war remain high

Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz attend a press conference following their meeting over Ukraine security at the Kremlin, in Moscow, on February 15, 2022. (Mikhail Klimentyev / Sputnik / AFP)
Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz attend a press conference following their meeting over Ukraine security at the Kremlin, in Moscow, on February 15, 2022. (Mikhail Klimentyev / Sputnik / AFP)

MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that Moscow was ready for talks with the US and NATO on limits for missile deployments and military transparency, in a new sign of easing East-West tensions.

“We are ready to work further together. We are ready to go down the negotiations track,” Putin told a press conference on Tuesday.

Putin said that “of course” Russia does not want war. But it “cannot turn a blind eye” to how Washington and NATO “freely interpret” the principle of the indivisibility of security — that no country should strengthen its security at the expense of others.

The statement came after Russia announced it was pulling back some troops from exercises that have raised fears of a potential invasion of Ukraine.

Speaking after talks with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Putin said the US and NATO had rejected Moscow’s demand to keep Ukraine and other ex-Soviet nations out of NATO, halt weapons deployments near Russian borders and roll back alliance forces from Eastern Europe.

Scholz and Putin agreed to discuss a range of security measures that Russia had previously proposed.

Scholz said Tuesday that he agreed with Russia’s assessment that there was still a chance to avert war over Ukraine through diplomatic negotiations.

“I expressly agree that the diplomatic options are far from exhausted,” he said.

Putin said that Russia is ready to engage in talks on limits on the deployment of intermediate range missiles in Europe, transparency of drills and other confidence-building measures but emphasized the need for the West to heed Russia’s main demands.

Russia has denied any plans to invade Ukraine.

Russian tanks roll on the field during military drills in Leningrad region, Russia, February 14, 2022. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)

Russia said Tuesday that some units participating in military exercises were returning to their bases, adding to glimmers of hope that the Kremlin may not be planning to invade Ukraine imminently. But it gave no details on where the troops were pulling back from, or how many.

That muddied efforts to determine the significance of the announcement, which buoyed world financial markets and the long-suffering ruble after weeks of escalation in Europe’s worst East-West standoff in decades. It came a day after Russia’s foreign minister indicated the country was ready to keep talking about the security grievances that led to the Ukraine crisis — a gesture that changed the tenor after weeks of tensions.

Yet hours before the Russian Defense Ministry statement about the troops, a US defense official said Russian units were moving closer to the Ukrainian border – not away from it. And Western officials continued to warn that the Russian military could attack at any time, with some floating Wednesday as a possible invasion day. NATO’s chief said the alliance had no proof yet of a Russian retreat.

The fears of an invasion grew from the fact that Russia has massed more than 130,000 troops near Ukraine. Russia denies it has any such plans, despite placing troops on Ukraine’s borders to the north, south and east and launching massive military drills nearby.

US and other NATO allies, meanwhile, have moved troops and military supplies toward Ukraine’s western flank, although not to confront Russian forces, and promised more financial aid to the ex-Soviet nation.

US soldiers line up during the visit of NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at the Mihail Kogalniceanu airbase, near the Black Sea port city of Constanta, eastern Romania, February 11, 2022. (AP Photo/Andreea Alexandru)

Moscow brandished Tuesday’s pullback announcement as proof that fears of war were fabricated by a hostile, US-led West: “February 15, 2022, will go down in history as the day Western war propaganda failed. Humiliated and destroyed without a single shot fired,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova tweeted.

The Russian Defense Ministry released images of tanks and armored vehicles rolling onto a train, and a tank commander saluting his forces while a military band played. The ministry did not disclose where or when the images were taken, or where the military vehicles were headed, other than “to places of permanent deployment.”

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the troops were returning “according to plan.” He said such drills always adhered to a schedule — regardless of “who thinks what and who gets hysterical about it, who is deploying real informational terrorism.”

Yet Ukraine remains effectively surrounded on three sides by military forces from its much more powerful neighbor, and even if the immediate threat recedes, longer-term risk remains. Russia annexed the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, and some 14,000 people have been killed in fighting between Ukrainian troops and pro-Russia separatists in the country’s east.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba gives a press conference in Kyiv, on January 19, 2022. (Alex Brandon / POOL / AFP)

Ukraine’s leaders expressed skepticism.

“We won’t believe when we hear, we’ll believe when we see. When we see troops pulling out, we’ll believe in de-escalation,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said.

Speaking in Brussels, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said: “So far, we have not seen any de-escalation on the ground, not seen any signs of reduced Russian military presence on the borders of Ukraine.”

However, he added that there are “some grounds for cautious optimism” for diplomatic efforts, given the signals coming from Moscow in recent days.

Stoltenberg said Russia has in the past moved into areas with troops and equipment, then pulled back leaving military materiel in place for rapid use later. He said that NATO wants to see a “significant and enduring withdrawal of forces, troops, and not least the heavy equipment.”

European leaders have been scrambling to try to head off a new war on their continent, after several tense weeks that have left Europeans feeling caught between Russia and the US, and further pushed up household energy prices because of Europe’s dependence on Russian gas.

In his opening remarks in the Kremlin on Tuesday, Scholz addressed the Ukraine tensions but also noted Germany’s economic ties with Russia — which complicate Western efforts to agree on how to punish Russia in case of an invasion.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (L) and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (R) arrive for a joint press conference in Kyiv on February 14, 2022.(Sergei Supinsky/AFP)

Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau of Poland, one of Russia’s most strident European critics, met in Moscow with Lavrov, and they discussed ways to use the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe for more talks aimed at easing tensions around Ukraine.

The day before, Lavrov suggested more efforts at diplomacy in a made-for-TV meeting with Putin that seemed designed to send a message to the world about the Russian leader’s position. The foreign minister argued that Moscow should hold more talks, despite the West’s refusal to consider Russia’s main demands.

The US reacted coolly.

“The path for diplomacy remains available if Russia chooses to engage constructively,” White House principal deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said. “However, we are clear-eyed about the prospects of that, given the steps Russia is taking on the ground in plain sight.”

British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss reiterated that the danger of an invasion still exists, telling Sky News that it “could be imminent.” Norwegian Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt issued a similar warning, and Estonia’s foreign intelligence agency said the Russian armed forces could launch an operation “from the second half of February.”

Britain’s new Foreign Secretary Liz Truss leaves 10 Downing Street, in London, September 15, 2021. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

A US defense official said small numbers of Russian ground units have been moving out of larger assembly areas for several days, taking up positions closer to the Ukrainian border at what would be departure points if Putin launched an invasion.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss information not publicly released.

Maxar Technologies, a commercial satellite imagery company that has been monitoring the Russian buildup, reported increased Russian military activity in Belarus, Crimea and western Russia, including the arrival of helicopters, ground-attack aircraft and fighter-bomber jets at forward locations. The photos taken over a 48-hour period also show ground forces leaving their garrisons and combat units moving into convoy formation.

Meanwhile, Russian lawmakers urged Putin to recognize rebel-held areas in eastern Ukraine as independent states. The State Duma, Russia’s lower house, voted to submit an appeal to Putin to that effect.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the issue of recognizing the self-proclaimed republics is “very, very relevant to the public.” But it was unclear how Putin would respond or how this could influence Russia’s actions in Ukraine.

While the US warns that Russia could invade Ukraine any day and Kyiv alerted residents to find their nearest bomb shelters, the drumbeat of war was hardly heard in Russia itself.

The Kremlin has cast the US warnings of an imminent attack as “hysteria” and “absurdity,” and many Russians believe Washington is deliberately stoking panic and fomenting tensions to trigger a conflict for domestic reasons.

Few Russians expect a war.

In Russia’s Belgorod region about 30 kilometers (18 miles) from Ukraine’s border, residents carry on with life as usual, even as more military personnel have been passing through village streets.

“Planes, helicopters just started flying, I guess, to patrol the border,” said Vladimir Konovalenko.

Villager Lyudmila Nechvolod says she’s not worried.

“We are friends with Ukraine. And we are not sure that Ukraine wants war with us. … We are really on the border, we really have relatives here and there, everyone has somebody there (on the Ukrainian side),” she said. “No one wants war.”

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