Russia said on Tuesday some of its military units were returning to their bases after exercises near Ukraine, following days of U.S. and British warnings that Moscow might invade its neighbour at any time.
It was not clear how many units were being withdrawn, and by what distance, after a build-up of an estimated 130,000 Russian troops to the north, east and south of Ukraine.
The development drew a cautious response from Ukraine.
"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.
He accused the U.S. of fuelling the crisis by warning repeatedly of an impending invasion.
Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Kiev would only believe that Russia was moving to de-escalate the situation if it saw for itself that Russian troops were being pulled back.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, on the latest Western diplomatic mission to defuse the crisis, held talks with Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin.
A Russian Defence Ministry spokesman said that while large-scale drills across the country continued, some units of the Southern and Western military districts adjacent to Ukraine had completed their exercises and started returning to base.
The Southern military district said its forces had started withdrawing from Crimea and returning to their bases after completing drills on the peninsula, which Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014.
Video footage published by the Defence Ministry showed some tanks and other armoured vehicles being loaded onto railway flatcars.
"February 15, 2022 will go down in history as the day Western war propaganda failed. Humiliated and destroyed without a single shot fired," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.
