RIVNE: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (third from right) inspects military equipment during a drill.—AFP

       MOSCOW: The United States and Nato said Russia was still building up troops around Ukraine on Wednesday despite Moscow’s insistence it was pulling back, questioning President Vladimir Putin’s stated desire to negotiate a solution to the crisis.

       In Ukraine, where people raised flags and played the national anthem to show unity against fears of an invasion, the government said a cyberattack that hit the defence ministry was the worst of its kind that the country had seen. It pointed the finger towards Russia, which denied involvement.

       The Russian defence ministry said its forces were pulling back after exercises in southern and western military districts near Ukraine — part of a huge build-up that was accompanied by demands for sweeping security guarantees from the West.

       It published video that it said showed tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and self-propelled artillery units leaving the Crimean peninsula, which Moscow seized from Ukraine in 2014.

       Kyiv observes ‘unity day’, says Moscow is behind a cyberattack that hit its defence ministry

       But US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said key Russian units were moving towards the border, not away from it.

       “There’s what Russia says. And then there’s what Russia does. And we haven’t seen any pullback of its forces,” Blinken said in an interview on MSNBC.

       “We continue to see critical units moving towards the border, not away from the border.”

       Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said moving troops and tanks back and forth did not amount to proof of a pullout.

       “We have not seen any withdrawal of Russian forces. And of course, that contradicts the message of diplomatic efforts,” Stoltenberg said before a meeting of the alliance in Brussels.

       “What we see is that they have increased the number of troops and more troops are on their way. So, so far, no de-escalation.”

       Stoltenberg later said Nato could prove Russia’s failure to pull back its troops with satellite images.

       The Kremlin said Nato’s assessment was wrong. Moscow’s ambassador to Ireland said forces in western Russia would be back to their normal positions within three to four weeks.

       Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky designated Wednesday a patriotic holiday in response to the reports Russia could invade on that day. “No one can love our home as we can. And only we, together, can protect our home,” he said.

       The defence ministry said hackers were still bombarding its website and had found vulnerabilities but that traffic was being rerouted to servers in the United States while the issue was being fixed.

       Ukrainian regions

       Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin had “taken note” of a request from Russia’s parliament on Tuesday for him to recognise the “independence” of two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine where Russian-backed separatists have been fighting Ukrainian government forces since 2014.

       But he said that would not be in line with agreements aimed at ending the conflict, in which Ukraine says some 15,000 people have been killed, indicating Putin would not rush to recognise the separatist areas but might keep the option in reserve.

       Blinken said such a step would undermine Ukraine’s sovereignty, violate international law and “necessitate a swift and firm response from the United States in full coordination with our Allies and partners”.

       Published in Dawn, February 17th, 2022