Have you noticed that every meeting that they brink up the lack of hiring they throw in "except Indian" and every single manager uses the same phrasing about "these are your fellow employees and are in it just as you are."
They can try to justify it all they want but it's yet another sh*t move they are doing and if they themselves had to move to those same countries they are doing hiring in, they wouldn't be back to THAT type of back to the office. And if they wouldn't do it, they can't expect employees to think it's anything about yet another job cutting measure.