Free Republic

Russia said Wednesday it was returning more troops and weapons to bases, yet another gesture apparently aimed at easing fears it is planning to invade Ukraine, even as the U.S. said the threat of an attack remained. On Wednesday, the Russian Defense Ministry released a video showing a trainload of armored vehicles moving across a bridge away from Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula that Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014. It said the movement was part of a return of forces to their permanent bases. A day earlier, the ministry reported the start of a pullback of troops following military...

The Russian government claimed on Tuesday that several military units have completed “scheduled drills” along border with Ukraine and will now return to their permanent bases, bringing their armor and artillery with them. Russian officials taunted the Biden administration by claiming the redeployment “humiliated” Western war hysterics, while Ukrainian and NATO military officials said they did not see any immediate sign of Russian forces actually pulling back from the border.

The whole world is waiting nervously for developments in Ukraine. Masses of Russian soldiers are engaged in "military exercises" near the Ukrainian border. "Siberian regiments" are being redeployed from the Far Eastern districts, just as they were sent to defend Moscow in 1941. Russian propaganda stirs up the local population with a patriotic fervor, blaming Ukraine and the collective West for the heat of the international situation. The Ukrainian army, one of the strongest in Europe, is preparing to fight back, and the United States is planning to send eighty–five hundred soldiers to help the NATO countries in Europe. The...