Russia ready to continue talks to avoid war in Ukraine, says Vladimir Putin

Boris Johnson says signals coming from Moscow are ‘mixed’ and intelligence on troop build-up ‘not encouraging’

Russian president Vladimir Putin has said he does not want war in Europe and is willing to continue diplomatic discussions over the current tension over Ukraine.

But Mr Putin said that Nato had not delivered a “constructive” response to Russia’s security concerns and said that “everything possible” must be done to resolve a “genocide” which he claimed was being conducted against the large Russian minority in the Donbass region of Ukraine.

The Russian president was speaking alongside German chancellor Olaf Scholz just hours after the defence minstry in Moscow announced that troops were being partially withdrawn following exercises near the Ukrainian border.

The announcement of troops being pulled back was welcomed as a "good signal" by Mr Scholz, who added that he hopes that "more will follow."

But there was no immediate confirmation from Western sources of the withdrawal.

And Boris Johnson said that the latest intelligence on the situation on the ground is “not encouraging”, with evidence of army formations being brought closer to the border and field hospitals being built in Belarus.

The developments can only be “construed as preparation for an invasion”, warned the prime minister following a meeting of the government’s Cobra emergency committee in London.

Mr Johnson described the signals coming out of Moscow as “mixed”. While there was a clear “avenue for diplomacy” opened up by positive comments from the Putin regime, Russia remained in a position where it could launch an invasion with huge force “virtually at any moment”.

During a press conference with Mr Scholz lasting more than an hour in Moscow, Mr Putin was asked directly whether he could rule out war in Europe.

The Russian president replied: “Of course we don’t want it. This is exactly why we have put forward the proposal to start the negotiation process, where the result should be an agreement ensuring equal security for everyone, including our country.

“Unfortunately there was no constructive response to this proposal.”

This infographic, created for The Independent by statistics agency Statista, shows the relative military strength of Ukraine and Russia (Statista/The Independent)

Mr Putin said the US and Nato had rejected Moscow’s demands to rule out Nato membership for Ukraine, halt weapons deployments near Russian borders and roll back alliance forces from eastern Europe.

But he said Russia is ready to engage in talks on limiting the deployment of intermediate range missiles in Europe, transparency on military exercises and other confidence-building measures.

Mr Scholz said he agreed that diplomatic options are "far from exhausted" and called for further “de-escalation” of the situation by Russia.

The German chancellor tried to calm Russian anxieties about Ukraine and other former Soviet areas joining Nato, saying it would not happen within his or Putin’s time in power - though he made clear he was not ruling it out in the longer term.

“Nato expansion is not really on the agenda, not a topic that will come up while we are in office,” said Mr Scholz. “I think it could take longer - but not forever.”

But Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg insisted that the alliance’s door “remains open” for Ukraine, as agreed at a summit in Bucharest in 2008.

He told reporters in Brussels: “The Bucharest decision stands. Nato strongly believe that all nations have the right to choose their own path and Nato’s door remains open.

“The enlargement of Nato has been a great success that helps to spread democracy, freedom and ensure peace and stability across Europe for decades. So, that decision stands.”

Mr Stoltenberg said there was cause for “cautious optimism” over Ukraine, as Moscow appears willing to “continue to engage in diplomatic efforts”.

But he stressed: “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.”

Moscow tried to present its announcement of a drawback of troops as an indication that fears of war had been fabricated by the West. US media reports had quoted intelligence sources as saying that Russian forces would cross the border into Ukraine at 1am on Wednesday.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said in a statement: "February 15, 2022, will go down in history as the day Western war propaganda failed. Humiliated and destroyed without a single shot fired."

The Russian Defense Ministry released images of tanks and armoured vehicles being loaded onto a train, but did not indicate where the withdrawing troops had been deployed or how many were leaving.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the troops were returning "according to plan... regardless of who thinks what and who gets hysterical about it, who is deploying real informational terrorism."

But Mr Johnson voiced scepticism that the crisis had been resolved.

“We think they have a huge preparation ready to go virtually at any moment,” said the prime minister.

“130,000 troops or more, a huge number of battalions – more than 90 battalions, tactical groups – and they are stationed around the Ukrainian border.

“Everyone can see what the potential routes in are – down to the south from Belarus, encircling the Ukrainian army in the east around the enclave in Donbass or even coming up from the south from the sea, taking Odessa, Kherson.

“That’s the kind of thing they (could do). There a lot of options that they have.”

Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba, who was today due to speak by phone with foreign secretary Liz Truss, made clear that Kyiv shares the PM’s doubts.

“On Russian statements regarding withdrawal of some forces from the Ukrainian border, we in Ukraine have a rule,” said Mr Kuleba.

“We don’t believe what we hear, we believe what we see. If a real withdrawal follows these statements, we will believe in the beginning of a real de-escalation.”

Ms Truss warned that any invasion of Ukraine could spread into other eastern European states.

She told Sky News: “President Putin has actively questioned why other countries in eastern Europe are members of Nato … so this, I fear, would not stop at Ukraine.

“This is an attack on the neighbouring states of Russia and other east European countries.”

Speaking on Tuesday morning, Ms Truss repeated the warning that a Russian invasion of Ukraine could be "imminent and highly likely".