Russian defence ministry Wednesday announced the end of Crimea military drills, reported news agency AFP. The Russian defence ministry shared a video of Russian military equipment and forces leaving Crimea. The move comes after Moscow said Tuesday that some of its troops are returning to home bases, indicating a cooling of tensions of a possible Ukraine invasion.
US President Joe Biden, in a televised address, said that reports of pullback of troops are unverified and revised the number of Russian troops encircling Ukraine from 1,00,000 to 1,50,000.
Meanwhile a series of cyberattacks Tuesday knocked the websites of the Ukrainian army, the defense ministry and major banks offline. At least 10 Ukrainian websites were unreachable due to the attacks, including the defense, foreign and culture ministries and Ukraine’s two largest state banks. One European diplomat told Reuters that cyberattacks were a longstanding component of Russian strategy, and had been used by Moscow in past military confrontations with Georgia and Ukraine. “It’s part of their playbook,” the official said.
