The West is today seeking to verify videos purporting to show Russian troop withdrawals from close to Ukraine.
It comes as US president Joe Biden put Vladimir Putin ’s force numbers at 150,000, the highest figure yet, and made it clear the risk of invasion remains high.
Russian war games continue unabated in multiple locations, including Belarus, as the Kremlin keeps its forces in a high state of war readiness.
Defence ministry sources on Wednesday told newspaper Izvestia that units and subunits of the 3rd, 42nd and 150th Motorised Rifle Divisions are being sent back to their permanent bases after the “partial completion of large-scale exercises of the Russian army and navy”.
No figure was put on this claimed pullback.
One new video reportedly shows tanks being loaded at Dzhankoi, in the north of annexed Crimea - but the West is seeking to ascertain whether a rotation of forces is being dressed up as a retreat in a Putin bluff.
Russian defence ministry TV channel Zvezda claims another video shows a Southern Military District's logistics unit having crossed the Crimean bridge en route to their permanent base.
A TikTok video in Kursk region - which borders Ukraine - highlighted military vehicles on a static train.
More footage shows an MSTA-S howitzer evidently stuck in a snowy field in Belgorod region, but it is unclear that these videos indicate any withdrawal.
Film from Tula region shows military trucks on the move, but with no confirmation that the clip represents a retreat from Ukraine’s borders -and a suggestion that it may even highlight the opposite.
Tula does not share a border with Ukraine and the position of the sun is said to probably show the vehicles heading towards frontier regions, not away.
The date of the footage is also unclear.
A video from Bryansk region appears to show Russian military vehicles heading away from Ukraine.
Another in Kursk region apparently shows the same.
Major military exercises continued in several regions of Russia.
In Samara region, soldiers were shown firing AK-74 assault rifles, Pecheneg machine guns, and RPG-7V grenade launchers to repel a mock enemy in war games.
Troops and air force pilots staged drills with Russia’s ultra-modern S-400 Triumf surface-to-air missile system in the Central military district.
Despite the claimed return of some forces to permanent bases, Russian war games in Belarus remained at full scale with Su-35 fighters practising intercepting enemy warplanes, and MiG-31 fighters forcing a simulated intruder to land.
Russia’s upper house speaker Valentina Matviyenko, a close Putin ally, warned that Moscow will defend any attack on the rebel-held Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
Western leaders have expressed fears of a “false flag” operation by Russia here.
"The unrecognised republics are home to many thousands of Russian citizens,” she said.
“Clearly, we will not fail them in times of trouble, we will defend them.
“We will do everything we need to protect them. Naturally, our response will be proportionate to the aggression.”
US secretary of state Antony Blinken said that despite the Kremlin retreat “an act of aggression starting this week is completely possible when we look at what is happening with the deployment of Russian forces in the areas surrounding Ukraine”.
He was concerned that Moscow "has been escalating, putting more and more forces" to areas bordering Ukraine.
"We are doing everything we possibly can to convince Russia that it should take the diplomatic path, the path of dialogue, to resolve whatever differences exist peacefully, but, if it pursues aggression, we’re fully prepared for that, in close coordination with all of our European allies and partners," he told France 24 TV channel.
Russian First Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Dmitry Polyansky hit back saying: "I don't know about any threats.
“Our troops on our territory present a threat to no-one.”
Russia has blamed the West for “hysteria” over the invasion threat.
But Moscow military expert Vladislav Shurygin told Izvestia that the forces on the border remain strong despite some withdrawal, and a threat remains of a flare-up in the Donbas.
“Russia has shown that it can, if necessary, it very quickly create the necessary grouping of forces in any direction,” he said.
At the same time, the military threat to the Donbas still remains, he said.
“There has been no fundamental changes in the situation around the republics [Donetsk and Luhansk].
“They have borders, an impressive grouping of Ukrainian troops is still concentrated. Air defence systems were brought up.”
