Russian Embassy to US Says Perplexed by Washington's Concern Over Russian Troops' Movement

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – The Russian Embassy to the United States said it is perplexed by the concern of the US Department of State and Department of Defense over the movement of Russian troops within its national borders.

"We are perplexed by concern of the press offices of @StateDept and @DeptofDefense with the activity of our military forces on the national territory within [Russian] borders. Look in the mirror. It is the [US] military roaming recklessly around the world and leaving behind chaos," the embassy wrote on its Twitter page on late Friday.

On October 30, The Washington Post newspaper reported, citing sources, that a number of American and European officials were concerned about the alleged resumption of the build-up of Russian troops near the border with Ukraine.

The publication noted that these movements were detected in recent weeks, after Russia had completed large-scale joint military exercises with Belarus Zapad-2021. Later, US publication Politico published satellite images, allegedly showing the deployment of the Russian military "on the border with Ukraine." The images showed areas in the Smolensk Region, which does not border on Ukraine.

The Ukrainian Defense Ministry announced earlier that it did not record the build-up of Russian troops near its own borders and considered information about this in the media to be an element of special information and psychological actions. National Security and Defense Council Secretary Oleksiy Danilov also denied information about the activity of Russian troops near the Ukrainian borders.

On Wednesday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that western media reports about Russia pulling troops to the Ukrainian border do not correspond to reality. The spokeswoman also stated that it was not one fake piece of news, it was a whole fresh fake news campaign in the American media.