Ukraine crisis: Russia says it is pulling troops back from Crimea as military drills end

Russian military district units finish tactical games at ranges on the Crimean Peninsula

Russia says it is pulling troops back from Crimea after the completion of military drills there, with the defence ministry sharing video purporting to show columns of military equipment and forces leaving the area that borders Ukraine.

The southern military districts are reportedly returning to their base from an exercise in Crimea, reported independent Russian news agency Interfax, citing the Kremlin defence ministry in a statement.

“Southern military district units have finalised their participation in tactical games at ranges on the Crimean Peninsula and are heading to their bases by train,” the ministry confirmed just hours after signs of de-escalation from Russia.

The trains have crossed the Crimean Bridge to mainland Russia, officials said.

These include tracked armoured vehicles like tanks, infantry combat vehicles and self-propelled artillery systems which were loaded on flatcars at the stations of departure, the report added.

Russian defence officials said the military trains will now bring the troops and hardware to their bases.

Citing intelligence reports, UK defence secretary Ben Wallace said the country has not seen any evidence that Russia is withdrawing troops from near the Ukrainian border.

“We haven’t seen any evidence at the moment of that withdrawal,” Mr Wallace said.

He had earlier said 60 per cent of Russian land combat remains on the Ukrainian border along with significant naval power at sea, adding that an invasion is still possible.

Ukraine is “fairly surrounded” by a “fairly large force”, the defence secretary said ahead of his anticipated meet with Nato counterparts.

Mr Wallace added that Russia should be judged by its actions when it comes to de-escalating tension at the Ukraine border.

“We’ll take Russia at its word, but we will judge them on their actions,” he said.

“It's pretty clear that their intentions towards Ukraine is to change their behaviour and indeed change NATO's relationship towards Ukraine and they're doing so with the threat of invasion,” Mr Wallace told Sky news.

“Physical observations that we see show the opposite of some of the recent rhetoric coming out the Kremlin,” he told the BBC.

This comes just hours after Russian president Vladimir Putin publicly welcomed diplomatic talks and said the Kremlin does not want war.

His administration added, in first signs of an apparent de-escalation, that some of its forces cornering Ukraine will now be returning to their regular bases.

The US, however, has also not written off a Russian invasion in the coming days and have said that it is too early to tell whether the threats of invasion and a potential attack on Kiev have abated.

They have have repeatedly warned Mr Putin could give orders to the more than 130,000 troops massed near the Ukrainian border to invade the country.

Mr Wallace echoed the concerns of White House from Tuesday, where Mr Biden said the US will defend all of Nato territory.

“Make no mistake. The United States will defend every inch of Nato territory with the full force of American power,” Mr Biden said Tuesday. “An attack against one Nato country is an attack against all of us,” the US president said.

Russia, which has consistently played down the threat of conflict by saying it does not intend to go to war with Ukraine, has called the West’s intelligence reports propaganda.

“15 February 2022 will go into history as the day western war propaganda failed. They have been disgraced and destroyed without a single shot being fired,” said Maria Zakharova, the foreign ministry spokesperson said on Tuesday.