Russia announces the withdrawal of its forces from the border with Ukraine
On Thursday, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu announced the withdrawal of his country’s forces from the Ukrainian borders and their return to their places.
“The forces have demonstrated their ability to ensure the reliable defense of the country,” Shoygu said in a statement.
Therefore, it decided to end the audit activities in the “Southern and Western Military Provinces” bordering Ukraine.
Shoygu ordered the “return of the forces to their permanent deployment points”, starting from Friday.
However, Shoygu confirmed that his country will closely follow the transfer of NATO forces to the “Defender Europe 2021” military exercise, which is not far from the southern border of Russia.
He added, “We are closely monitoring the deployment of the coalition forces in the area of the” Defender Europe “maneuvers, which began last March and will continue until next June.
The Russian Minister of Defense also indicated that he “ordered his country’s forces to continue monitoring the area of the aforementioned maneuver activities and to prepare to respond immediately in the event of any unfavorable developments”.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed Moscow’s announcement, on Twitter that “reducing forces on our borders leads to a relative reduction in tension”.
He added that “Ukraine will always remain vigilant, but it welcomes any measure aimed at reducing the military presence”.
The deployment of thousands of Russian soldiers near Ukraine, which since 2014 has been fighting pro-Russian separatists in its east, has greatly inflamed tensions between Moscow and the West, and led to verbal confrontations.
The Ukrainian authorities accused Russia of seeking to “destroy” the country and preparing for an invasion, in parallel with the escalation of the conflict with the separatists since the beginning of the year.
