Russia’s Defense Ministry said yesterday that exercises have been completed at the border with Ukraine, and it is pulling back troops.

But have they?

NYP reports – Russia said Tuesday it is moving some of its forces away from Ukraine’s border and slammed reports of an imminent invasion as “ostentatious hysteria” — but the West reacted skeptically to the announcement, questioning the Kremlin’s credibility and pointing to the presence of a massive military force still arrayed near the former Soviet state.

“We’ve always said the troops will return to their bases after the exercises are over. This is the case this time as well,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said, according to Reuters.

House Armed Committee Services Member GOP Rep. Michael Waltz (R-FL) remains skeptical about Putin’s plan to go to war with Ukraine, saying that he believes the Russian President is simply trying to buy time before going to war with Ukraine, and that he doesn’t believe “Putin has ever been serious about negations.” He called the latest “We might go, we might not,” remarks by Russians,  “more disinformation.” Rep. Waltz says Putin is looking for an economic and political collapse in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine.

Per Reuters, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated “February 15, 2022, will go down in history as the day Western war propaganda failed.  Humiliated and destroyed without a single shot fired.”