29 March 2024 / 01:37 RU

    Russia Orders Some Troops to Withdraw From Ukraine Border

    Move could help de-escalate tensions with Kyiv and the West, but Moscow’s continuing military presence in region appears likely to keep nerves on edge

    Russia’s Defense Ministry ordered some of its troops to begin withdrawing from the Ukrainian border in a move that could help de-escalate tensions with Kyiv and the West, but its continuing military presence in the volatile region appears likely to keep nerves on edge.

    On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned adversaries that Moscow would deliver a swift and harsh response to any foreign threat amid a vast buildup of forces along the frontier between the two countries.

    The defense ministry said it had deployed more than 10,000 personnel and 1,200 units of equipment to participate in military exercises in Crimea, which Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014, in what it had described as a snap test of combat readiness in response to “threatening military activities” by the U.S. and its partners in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

    These troops would be deployed back to their permanent bases by May 1, defense officials said Thursday.

    But an undisclosed number of troops have also been deployed for exercises along Russia’s western border near eastern Ukraine, where a conflict has been festering between Kyiv and Kremlin-backed separatists. The defense ministry didn’t say when they would be returned to base.

    Western officials estimate that Russia has sent between 80,000 and 100,000 troops near Ukraine’s border, larger than the force the Russians deployed when they seized Crimea and sent troops into eastern Ukraine.

    The buildup raised fears of triggering full-scale war between Ukrainian forces and Kremlin-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, and follows a recent escalation of fighting along the demarcation line inside Ukraine. Kyiv said several of its soldiers had been killed in cease-fire violations.

    President Biden had called on Russia to dial down tensions, and NATO said Russia should end its military buildup.

    State Department spokesman Ned Price said Thursday that the U.S. was aware of Russia’s announcement that it would begin withdrawing troops from the border of Ukraine, and that Washington would continue to monitor the situation.

    “We’ve heard words. I think what we’ll be looking for is action,” Mr. Price said.

    “Any steps towards de-escalation by Russia would be important and well overdue,” a NATO official said in an email. The alliance “remains vigilant and we will continue to closely monitor Russia’s unjustified military buildup in and around Ukraine,” the official said.

    Completing a surprise check of the combat readiness of troops taking part in exercises in Crimea, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said they “demonstrated their capacity for solid national defense.”

     

    Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu watching drills from a military helicopter in Crimea.

    PHOTO: VADIM SAVITSKY/RUSSIAN DEFENSE MINISTRY/ASSOCIATED PRESS
     

    Ukraine’s leadership reacted with caution to news of Russia’s partial withdrawal. President Volodymyr Zelensky said the troop withdrawal “proportionally reduces tension.”

    “Ukraine is always vigilant, yet welcomes any steps to decrease the military presence & de-escalate the situation in Donbas,” he said in a tweet, referring to a region bordering Russia. “Ukraine seeks peace.”

    Mr. Putin, meanwhile, responded to an earlier invitation by Mr. Zelensky to meet in Ukraine’s war-torn east, saying the Ukrainian leader would be welcome to discuss bilateral relations in Moscow. “If President Zelensky wants to start restoring these relations, we will only welcome it,” Mr. Putin said.

    To solve the conflict in the Donbas, Mr. Putin said, Mr. Zelensky should communicate with the separatists in the breakaway territories in Donetsk and Luhansk, where ethnic Russians comprise a majority of the population.

    Igor Korotchenko, a pro-Kremlin military expert in Moscow, said that Russia had shown that it is ready to act by force if necessary, but the withdrawal of such a significant number of forces “could be interpreted as the fact that the Ukrainian crisis is being de-escalated,” he said.

     

    He said that Russia would again be “ready to concentrate its forces where there might be threats to its national interests.”

    “This is not [an] olive branch…it’s reasonable pragmatism,” he said.

    Some Ukrainian officials saw the news as a sign that Moscow’s main goal was to intimidate Kyiv and pressure the West rather than to invade.

    “Putin conducted a strategic bluff designed to scare NATO and Ukraine—but we were not afraid,” said Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser on national security in the Zelensky administration. “The bluff is over and it failed.”

    Experts on the region’s security issues, however, warned that the extent of Russia’s withdrawal and the precise areas affected remain unclear.

    “The statement is a positive development, but I would not count the matter resolved,” said Michael Kofman, senior research scientist at the Russia Studies Program of CNA, a nonprofit research group in Arlington, Va.

    “If Russia actually begins to redeploy as suggested, then it is fair to interpret this affair as a coercive demonstration, but it also appears that some forces will remain,” he said.

     


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    #UKRAINE
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    #MILITARY
    #POLITICS
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    #REGION
    #PUTIN
    #ZELINSKY

    13 July 2021 / 11:47