Did Russia's border pullback answer Zelensky's offer to meet?
A look back at the two announcements made in the days before 23 April 2021, as troop movements near Ukraine's border and a proposed front-line meeting overlapped.
Was Moscow's announcement of a pullback a response to Kyiv's invitation to talk? Looking back at 23 April 2021, the date on which Russia's Defence Ministry said its forces would begin moving away from the Ukrainian border, the sequence is clear, but any link between the two steps was not stated.
On 21 April 2021, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky invited his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, to a face-to-face meeting on the front line in the war-torn Donbas, with the aim of negotiating an end to the conflict.
On 22 April 2021, the Russian Defence Ministry announced that its forces would begin moving away from the border the following day. Ukraine and its western allies had accused Russia of trying to provoke conflict by massing troops there. Defence Minister Sergey Shoygu had said the deployment was only to conduct drills.
Two readings
The two accounts of the build-up differed sharply: Kyiv and its partners saw provocation, while Moscow described routine exercises. The pullback announcement did not settle that dispute, since it came with no change in Russia's stated explanation.
The invitation to meet in Donbas, meanwhile, put a diplomatic proposal on the table at the same moment as the military tension. The announcement of 22 April 2021 addressed the troop movements, not the proposed meeting.
