Via the Reuters Live feed, EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini speaking at a joint news conference with Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics during the EU foreign ministers meeting in Riga:
"We have to obviously be very realistic about the developments in the Russian attitude starting from the illegal annexation of Crimea last year and we are approaching the anniversary in one week of a very bad development. But we also have the duty to exercise our role, which is also a role of looking all the time for a political channel in the interest first of all of our eastern partners, be it Ukraine, be it Moldova and Georgia, be it other partners."
"The European Union today is extremely realistic about the developments in Russia but will never be trapped or forced or pushed or pulled into a confrontative attitude, we still believe that around our continent, not only in our continent, but around our continent cooperation is far better than confrontation and we still argue for that."
This quote isn't unequivocal. Perhaps lost in translation, but "last day" need not mean "achieved."
AFP's report:
Pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine claimed Saturday to have completed their withdrawal of heavy weapons, in line with a February ceasefire deal.
"Today is the last day of the weapons withdrawal," Edouard Bassourine, one of the rebel leaders told reporters in the town of Snizhne, where the separatists presented 120mm mortars removed from the frontline.
They have misled before, however.
Today's military situation map via Ukrainian authorities:
Good pushback by Alexander Motyl, via Newsweek, against this particular narrative, titled Putin’s Invasion Of Ukraine: Don’t Blame The West:
Much Western thinking about the causes of the Russo-Ukrainian War is rooted in a myth. It posits that the West—or, more specifically, NATO—attempted to wrest Ukraine from Russia’s sphere of influence, thereby forcing Vladimir Putin to defend Russia’s legitimate strategic interests by going to war with Ukraine.
The logic is impeccable. The only problem is that there isn’t a shred of truth to this claim.
Later:
The fact is that Putin unleashed war against Ukraine for the same reasons that Saddam Hussein unleashed war against revolutionary Iran in 1980: to prevent revolutionary contagion, to punish the revolutionaries and to take advantage of their weakness to make territorial gains.