FirstFT: White House says Russian troop withdrawal claims are ‘false’

The White House has called the Kremlin’s claims that it is withdrawing forces from the Ukrainian border “false” and accused Russia of increasing its troop presence in the region by about 7,000 in recent days.

“Yesterday, the Russian government said it was withdrawing troops from the border of Ukraine . . . we now know it was false,” a senior Biden administration official said on Wednesday.

“In fact, we have now confirmed that in the last several days, Russia has increased its troop presence along the Ukrainian border by as many as 7,000 troops, with some arriving as recently as today.”

US officials declined to provide more details to substantiate the claims, but said the intelligence was “fairly authoritative”. On Tuesday, President Joe Biden said Russia had concentrated about 150,000 troops on its border with Ukraine and in neighbouring Belarus.

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