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Russia announces pullback from Ukraine's border
Summary
A look back at the Russian Defence Ministry's announcement of 22 April 2021, a day after Zelensky proposed a front-line meeting with Putin.
What did Moscow signal on 22 April 2021? The Russian Defence Ministry announced that its forces would begin moving away from the Ukrainian border the following day, 23 April.
The announcement followed weeks of accusations. Ukraine and its western allies had said Russia was trying to provoke conflict by moving troops to the border. Defence Minister Sergey Shoygu had maintained that the deployment was only for drills.
The day before, on 21 April 2021, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had invited his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, to a face-to-face meeting on the front line in the war-torn Donbas, to negotiate an end to the conflict.
The two developments came in quick succession. The first was a public offer of direct talks from Kyiv. The second was a Russian pledge to pull back troops. Reports from that time do not link the two, and the pledge was an announcement of intent, with the movement scheduled to begin the next day.
