Russian withdrawal set to calm Ukrainian waters

Russia said it will begin pulling thousands of troops back from areas near the Ukrainian border, starting on Friday, in a step that could relax surging tensions with the West in recent weeks.

The rouble gained as much as 1.4% against the dollar after the news. The Russian currency had slipped amid fears that the standoff could bring fresh Western sanctions. The military units will have returned to their bases by May 1, defence minister Sergei Shoigu said on Thursday in Crimea, where he is on a visit to review manoeuvres.

“The goals of these surprise checks were fulfilled completely. The forces showed their ability to reliably defend the country,” he told commanders, announcing the end of the operation. “The military activity of Nato in this region has significantly increased,” Shoigu noted, according to a press release.

Western officials say Russia moved as many as 100,000 troops, as well as tanks, warplanes and other equipment, to areas near the border with Ukraine in recent weeks, the largest such build-up in years. The US and its European allies have called on the Kremlin to pull the forces back but Moscow has said it is free to deploy its military wherever needed on its territory.

“Moscow thinks that it got its message across,” said Fyodor Lukyanov, head of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, which advises the Kremlin. “There’s been some deescalation and now the confrontation has returned to the political and diplomatic sphere.”

Amid the crisis, US President Joe Biden called Vladimir Putin to appeal to the Russian leader to reduce tensions, offering the prospect of a summit meeting later this year, a gesture welcomed in Moscow.

Russia denied that its buildup was a threat to Ukraine but the Kremlin had charged the government in Kyiv with planning an assault on Donbas separatist regions in the east of the country that are backed by Moscow. The Ukrainian government rejected those claims and accused Moscow of planning a military incursion of its own.

As recently as Tuesday, Shoigu had accused Ukraine of seeking to destabilise the Donbas and said the troop build-up was a response to threats from Nato. On April 13 he said the exercises would end within two weeks.