The Ministry of Defense specifies that these troops “after completing the assigned tasks, will begin to move to their barracks”
The spokesman for the Russian Ministry of Defense, General Igor Konashenkov, has just announced that part of the Russian troops deployed near the border with Ukraine have begun to be withdrawn. According to Konashenkov, “units from the Western and Southern military districts have begun to return to their bases after the exercises.” The military representative specified this morning that these troops “after completing the assigned tasks, today they will begin to move to their barracks.”
He also explained that the military are loading their equipment on their means of transport by road and rail. “Individual units will march on their own as part of military columns,” Konashenkov added. What the Defense spokesman has not explained is the number of troops withdrawn or how many still remain on the ground. Moscow has always maintained that the troops stationed alongside Ukraine take part in maneuvers “within the territory of Russia”, although the United States and NATO have denounced that such a device does not pursue anything other than invading Ukraine.
diplomatic route
Yesterday, in a meeting with President Vladimir Putin, the Russian Defense Minister, Sergei Shoigú, assured that “part of the ongoing military maneuvers are in the final phase and others will end shortly.” Putin also met with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, whom he asked if “there is a possibility of reaching an agreement with our partners on the key issues that concern us or is it about getting involved in an endless process of talks.”
Lavrov replied that, indeed, there is such a danger and “we have warned that it would be inadmissible for the talks to go on endlessly when they are issues that require a solution today.” At the same time, the head of the Russian Diplomacy stated that “there is always a possibility” of reaching agreements.
In his words, “we must continue and intensify contacts with the US and NATO with the commitment to clarify that we are right, also being prepared to listen to counterarguments (…) it seems to me that our possibilities -for dialogue- are far from exhausted”.
For his part, Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said last night in statements to CNN that Russian President Vladimir Putin “is ready to hold talks on security issues” with the West. Peskov noted that “first of all, President Putin has always demanded negotiations and diplomacy. And, in fact, he started the topic of security guarantees for the Russian Federation. Ukraine is just one part of a larger issue of those guarantees, and of course the Russian president is prepared to negotiate.”
The announcement of the partial withdrawal of Russian forces from the border with Ukraine came as German Foreign Minister Olaf Scholz arrived in Moscow to be received by Putin in the Kremlin and continue efforts to resolve the crisis through diplomatic means.
The day before, Scholz visited Kiev and from there he asked the Russian president to “urgently” adopt some “de-escalation” measure that would reduce tensions.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitro Kuleba welcomed today that Russia has begun to defuse the situation by withdrawing troops. In his words, “together with our Western partners, we managed to prevent a further escalation of Russia.” An OSCE meeting is also scheduled today, at the request of Kiev, so that Moscow can give explanations for the deployment of troops on the border, since, according to the Ukrainian authorities, “it violates the commitments made by Russia within the framework of the OSCE ».
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