Paul Adams
BBC diplomatic correspondent

Image source, AFP

Ukraine’s "day of unity", announced by President Zelensky on Monday, is a low key affair.

At 10:00 this morning, the national anthem was played outside public buildings. Flags are flying on street corners and police cars.

The president is on a whirlwind tour of the country, appealing for calm. But the people of Kyiv are going about their business. There are no mass gatherings and it’s not a public holiday.

Following Russia’s reports that it has ended its military drills in Crimea, here’s a look at what you need to know about the region and why it’s significant.

Crimea lies on a peninsula stretching out from the south of Ukraine between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. It is separated from Russia to the east by the narrow Kerch Strait.

When Ukrainians deposed their pro-Russian president in early 2014, Moscow seized and annexed Crimea, which it believes to be historically part of Russia.

It also backed separatists who captured large swathes of eastern Ukraine. The rebels have fought the Ukrainian military ever since in a conflict that has claimed more than 14,000 lives.

Crimea is also central to Russia’s demands that the West guarantee that Ukraine will not join the Nato defensive alliance.

President Vladimir Putin has argued that if Ukraine joins Nato, the alliance might try to recapture Crimea.

READ MORE: Is Russia going to invade Ukraine and what does Putin want?

Too early to judge Russian claims of withdrawalpublished at 11:27 Greenwich Mean Time 16 February 2022

11:27 GMT 16 February 2022

Paul Adams
BBC diplomatic correspondent

Think of this crisis as theatre. Actors move across the stage. Soliloquies are delivered. There are “sounds off”, ambiguous and open to interpretation.

We are all mesmerised by Russia’s troop movements, constantly asking ourselves what each set of pictures means.

And that’s what the director of this theatre, Vladimir Putin, intends. He wants to keep us guessing.

It’s perfectly possible that the sight of Russian armour, crossing the Kerch strait from Crimea, represents a hoped-for sign of de-escalation.

But as Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg has reminded everyone, it’s way too early to make any reliable judgement on what it all means.

Vast numbers of Russian troops remain massed close to Ukraine’s borders, arrayed in a fashion that Western intelligence agencies can only interpret one way: this is an invasion force.

That doesn’t mean an invasion is coming. But even as the Kremlin denies it has any hostile intention, it suits Putin for everyone to think that the stage is set for this drama’s big battle scene.

Sarah Rainsford
BBC Eastern Europe Correspondent

Ukraine’s president has given his first reaction to reports from Russia that it is pulling some of its troops back from the border.

In an exclusive interview with the BBC at a military training ground in western Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky says: "To be honest we react to the reality we have and we don’t see any withdrawal yet. We just heard about it."

He says he thinks "all normal people expect de-escalation".

"As for the threat, I have said many times that we are calm about any threats because we remember that all this did not start yesterday. This has been happening for many years," he adds.

Zelensky says that when troops do withdraw "everyone will see that" - not only the military or reconnaissance.

"But for now It’s just statements."

Image source, EPA

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says Russia would retaliate should the UK impose new sanctions against Moscow over the Ukraine crisis.

Speaking during a news conference with his Brazilian counterpart, Lavrov says he hopes other Western countries would not follow London in provoking a new wave of sanction wars and that the Russian government and parliament will not be idle when they see such things happening in the West.

The UK government has introduced new powers to expand sanctions against Russian individuals and businesses if the country invades Ukraine.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson suggested measures could include blocking Russian companies from raising capital in London and exposing property and company ownership.

The Kremlin denies that Russia is behind cyber-attacks on Ukraine's defence ministry and two banks, but says it is not surprised that Kyiv would blame Moscow, according to Reuters.

On Tuesday evening the Ukrainian cyber-security centre said it did not know who was responsible but did not rule out Russia.

A message on the home page of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence said it was undergoing maintenance and two banks have experienced problems with payments and a banking app.

The defence ministry said the attack was still ongoing on Wednesday, Reuters reports.

There has long been concern that, rather than a full-scale invasion, Russia could use less obvious means to destabilise Ukraine, for example through cyber-attacks on critical infrastructure.

The Kremlin says Russian President Vladimir Putin is in favour of negotiations and diplomacy over tensions around Ukraine and that Moscow views US President Biden's willingness to talk as a positive sign, Reuters reports.

It also welcomes Biden's appeal to the Russian people that they are not the enemy and he does not believe they want a bloody war against Ukraine.

However, the Kremlin said it would be better if he urged Ukrainian people to stop shooting at each other. This is in reference to the ongoing fighting in eastern Ukraine where Russian-backed rebels have clashed with Ukrainian forces.

Image source, EPA/Belta

Russia says it has ended its military drills in Crimea, but those weren’t the only exercises it was holding near Ukraine.

Drills in Belarus - whose border is less than 100 miles (150km) from the Ukrainian capital - are still under way and are set to continue until 20 February.

But Belarus’s Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei said no Russian troops would remain in the country after the joint manoeuvres.

"Not a single [Russian] soldier or a single unit of military equipment will stay on the territory of Belarus after the drills with Russia," he told a press conference in the capital Minsk.

He said Ukrainian officials had been told that "what is happening on the border does not mean that someone is planning to carry out an act of aggression".

Russia has massed troops at various positions along Ukraine’s borders, but knowing exactly how many are there is difficult.

Western officials last week said the number had reached 130,000 - up from their previous estimate of 100,000. But in a speech on Tuesday, US President Joe Biden put the figure even higher, at 150,000.

While Russia says it is beginning to pull back troops, including ending military exercises in Crimea, it has not given any numbers.

We do know the locations where the troops are based, and that units arriving from across Russia have been added to about 35,000 military personnel who were permanently stationed close to Ukraine's border.

The new deployments include about 30,000 troops in Belarus, where joint military exercises are scheduled to run until 20 February.

Read more: How prepared is Russia for attack?

We have some more from Jens Stoltenberg, Nato secretary general, who says there has not been any de-escalation seen on the ground, after Russia said it was withdrawing some of its troops from the Ukrainian border.

"On the contrary, it appears that Russia continues the military build-up," he says.

He adds that "we have not seen any withdrawal of Russian forces", and "that contradicts the message of diplomatic efforts" from Moscow.

Image source, Getty Images

Ukraine is marking a day of unity as fears continue that Russian forces massed on its borders could be poised to launch an attack.

President Volodymyr Zelensky called on citizens to wave the country's flag and wear blue and yellow ribbons - Ukraine's national colours.

Flags were seen outside schools, hospitals and shops, and people played the national anthem and other patriotic songs to mark the day.

"These flags are here for a purpose, to show we fear no one. They did not scare us," a person operating a small coffee stand on Kyiv's main Khreshchatyk boulevard told Reuters news agency.

A 200m-long flag was paraded through the National Olympic Stadium.

Zelensky declared 16 February - cited by US officials as a possible date when Russia could attack - a "day of unity" in a defiant speech to the nation on Monday., external

Sarah Rainsford
BBC Moscow Correspondent

Image source, EPA

Ukrainians' long experience of living in Russia's shadow makes them wary of recent moves that suggest Moscow may be dialling down the tension, just a little bit.

Russia's defence ministry announced that some troops were returning to their garrisons "as planned" and published video of tanks rolling across a road as a soldier with little flags held up the traffic in the snow.

But Ukraine's foreign minister has given the purported evidence short shrift.

"We in Ukraine have a rule: we don't believe what we hear, we believe what we see," Dmytro Kuleba wrote on Twitter.

Today, President Volodymyr Zelensky is urging people to fly the flag, wear blue and yellow ribbons and come together in a show of national unity.

A scroll through social media suggests that many city councils across Ukraine are planning mini marches, in a flutter of patriotism and defiance.

Ukraine has not dropped its guard, but it's also refusing to be cowed.

Image source, Reuters

Defence ministers from the Nato alliance are taking part in a two-day meeting in Brussels which starts today.

Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who is chairing the talks, tells the media outside that Nato is ready to talk if Russia is willing to give diplomacy a chance.

"We work hard for the best, a peaceful political solution, but we are also prepared for the worst that Russia once again invades Ukraine," he says.

He says Russian troop numbers on the border of Ukraine keep going "up and up and up" and continue to increase.

"We really call on them to do what they say and really de-escalate, that is withdraw forces and that will be their best contribution to reduce tensions and avoid any conflict in Europe," he adds.

Stoltenberg says what Russia has done in recent months is move in with forces and equipment before withdrawing the troops but not the equipment "then they can very easily, very quickly send the personnel back again". He says Nato needs to see a lasting withdrawal.

Image source, EPA

European Council chief Charles Michel has said Russia must choose between war and diplomacy.

Speaking to EU lawmakers, Michel said Russia’s “unprecedented military escalation against Ukraine” threatened “peace and security in Europe”.

"In the last two days, Russia has signalled that it may be open to diplomacy, and we urge Russia to take concrete and tangible steps towards de-escalation because this is the condition for sincere political dialogue," Michel said.

"The choice today is a choice between war and the tragic sacrifices that would go along with that war, or the courage of a political engagement, the courage of a diplomatic negotiation," he added.

Image source, EPA

The risk of a "full-blooded" Russian invasion of Ukraine was never as high as some Western governments portrayed and has now "receded", the former head of MI6 has said.

John Sawers told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I don't think that President Putin ever decided to invade the country and, indeed, I think it would always have been a very risky course for him to have taken."

"But I think Russia has also come out of this with a number of important gains," he added, saying it had got Russia's security concerns back to the top of the international security agenda, the Ukrainians had been intimidated and Europeans had been reminded how dependent they are on Russian gas.

Sawers added: "I think in some ways President Putin will think he's ahead on points on this and he still has various military options which he can use in Ukraine."

Russia has so far been deterred from invading Ukraine but it could still happen, says the UK defence secretary.

Ben Wallace was asked about US intelligence that today was set as a date that Russian troops could launch an attack.

He tells BBC Breakfast “there is a range of dates”.

“I think it could still happen if President Putin makes the decision to invade Ukraine. I don’t think he’s made that decision yet," he says.

“[Russia] didn’t put those forces on that border just for a pleasant Sunday afternoon exercise. It put it on that border at the very least for maximum intimidation and at the worst for invasion."

Russia will be judged on its actions, not its words, the UK Defence Secretary says, after Moscow claims its forces are leaving Crimea.

Ben Wallace tells BBC Breakfast the best way to verify the truth of Russia’s statement is with UK’s own intelligence or by the movement of troops.

He says so far we are seeing the opposite with Russian troops increasing and moving from assembly points to more aggressive launch areas.

He says Russia are building field hospitals and exercising naval vessels.

"That is not normal military exercising - you don’t surround a country with 60% of the whole of Russia’s land forces on its borders if you’re just going for an exercise," he says.

He later told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: "Roughly from yesterday [Russia] were in position and scale to successfully invade Ukraine if they wish to do so."

Caroline Davies
Moscow correspondent

There is new footage from the Russian Ministry of Defence, but this is not entirely new information.

Yesterday we heard that Russia was moving some of its western and southern military districts back to their bases after drills finish; that included Crimea. This is in phases.

We had some footage of the movement during the day; these new videos are at night so show continued troop movement.

Russia has said that the troops that have completed their drills are now leaving. It’s not clear whether this is all the troops or some. Russia has not given numbers.

Image source, EPA/RUSSIAN DEFENCE MINISTRY

As we’ve mentioned, Russia has announced that its military drills in Crimea have ended and that troops are leaving.

"Units of the Southern Military District, having completed their participation in tactical exercises, are moving to their permanent deployment points,” its defence ministry said in a statement.

The statement said tanks, other military vehicles and artillery were leaving Crimea by rail. It did not specify how many troops were leaving.

Footage broadcast on state television appeared to show military units crossing the bridge to leave Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014.

The announcement of the end of the Crimea drills came a day after Russia said it was pulling back some of its troops from near Ukraine.

However, Western leaders remain sceptical about the significance of the move.

This morning Russia’s Ministry of Defence has announced some forces are leaving Crimea having completed military drills.

It follows yesterday’s claim that some of its troops massed on the Ukrainian border were pulling back.

But UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace says he has not yet seen any evidence that Russia is scaling back its operation.

“On the ground, the physical observations we see show the opposite,” he tells BBC Breakfast.

“Let’s remember Crimea was a sovereign part of Ukraine that was invaded and annexed illegally by Russia back in 2014.

“So I’m not sure that provides any reassurance to anyone that an occupied country is having its drills stepped down.

“What we all want in the international community is to see Crimea returned to Ukraine.”