Putin Didn't Commit To Avoid Maneuvers Near Ukraine: Kremlin

The Kremlin denied on Tuesday that Vladimir Putin had promised French President Emmanuel Macron that Russia would stage no further maneuvers near Ukraine for now, pouring cold water on a tentative French assertion of diplomatic progress, Dmitry Antonov and Pavel Polityuk reported for Reuters.

Photo Insert: Putin and Macron in 2017

Macron, who visited Moscow on Monday, is the highest-ranking Western leader to have met the Russian president since Moscow massed more than 100,000 troops near the Ukrainian frontier in what NATO countries fear is preparation for war.

Putin and Macron announced no breakthroughs at a news conference on Monday but a French official, speaking to reporters on condition of anonymity, said overnight that Putin had promised to hold no new maneuvers near Ukraine for now.

The official also said Putin had promised to withdraw Russian troops from Belarus at the end of exercises there, which are set for later this month.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said reports of any undertaking not to hold maneuvers near Ukraine were "not right." Putin had also given no new promise about when Russian troops would leave Belarus, Peskov said.

They were expected to return to bases in Russia at some point after the drills, but "no one had ever said they would stay" in Belarus, he said. Macron's Elysee Palace office appeared to row back from the French official's remarks on Tuesday, saying the official was mentioning points that were discussed by Macron and Putin, rather than a specific new promise by the Russian leader.

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