Putin says Russia ready to talk to US, NATO on missile limits

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Moscow was prepared to speak with the U.S. and the NATO about potential missile deployment limits and increased transparency.

Following talks with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Putin said Moscow would be willing to engage in discussions about confidence-building measures including limitations on intermediate range missiles in Europe and transparency surrounding military drills, according to The Associated Press.

But the Russian leader added that the West would need to meet some of Russia’s demands.

Putin said that the U.S. and NATO have refused to pull back their forces in Eastern Europe, to agree to keep Ukraine and other former Soviet nations out of NATO and to stop deploying weapons near Russia’s borders.

The news from Putin comes amid escalating tensions at the Russia-Ukraine border, where the Russian military had amassed more than 100,000 troops and conducted drills for weeks. The buildup of troops triggered international concern that Russia would invade the former Soviet state like it did in 2014, when it annexed the Crimean Peninsula.

The U.S., along with its allies in the area, have tried to resolve tensions diplomatically, but U.S. officials warned late last week that Russia could invade at any moment and urged Americans to leave Ukraine. 

On Tuesday, however, the Kremlin announced that it would pull back some troops participating in military exercises from the border.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov reportedly said that country’s drills were held “on its own territory and according to its own plans, they start, go on and end as planned” no matter ​​“who thinks what and who gets hysterical about it, who is deploying real informational terrorism.”

But Ukrainian officials remained skeptical of the move.

“Russia constantly makes various statements,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said. “That’s why we have the rule: We won’t believe when we hear, we’ll believe when we see. When we see troops pulling out, we’ll believe in de-escalation.”

In Tuesday’s announcement, Russia did not specify how many troops would be pulled back or where they were going to be relocated.