Moscow: The Kremlin announced on Monday that President Vladimir Putin had ordered Russian troops conducting exercises along the Ukrainian border to return to their home bases at the conclusion of the drills, apparently sending another loud signal that Russia is not planning any military action in eastern Ukraine ahead of that country's presidential elections Sunday.
However, the NATO secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said the Western allies had not seen any sign of a withdrawal of Russian forces. During a news conference at NATO headquarters in Brussels, General Rasmussen noted that it was the third such statement by Mr Putin without any evidence of a pullback of troops or equipment from the Ukrainian border.
Russian president Vladimir Putin. Photo: AFP
The Kremlin statement said Mr Putin had ordered the withdrawal of military units in conducting drills in the Rostov, Belgorod and Bryansk regions of western Russia. At the same time, it called for "the immediate halt of punitive operations and use of force" by the Ukrainian government and demanded "resolution of the various problems through peaceful means alone."
Even as a series of national round-table talks have begun in Ukraine aimed at resolving the country's political crisis, the provisional government in the capital, Kiev, has pressed on with a security operation aimed at suppressing the armed pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine. The government refers to the separatists, who have seized some public buildings, as terrorists.
Sporadic violence, including injuries and deaths, has continued throughout eastern Ukraine in recent days. On Sunday night, local news agencies reported that armed pro-Russian separatists had seized a police station in the city of Luhansk.
The Kremlin's call for an end to the Ukrainian government's campaign against the separatists was reiterated by the Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov at a news conference in Moscow on Monday.
"We still insist on the first unconditional step: a halt of the so-called anti-terrorism operation, which is turning into actions aimed at terrorising citizens of Ukraine just for their political convictions," Mr Lavrov said.
In a sign of the continuing mistrust, Mr Lavrov warned against any effort by Kiev to use the round-table talks as public window dressing while secretly pursuing other changes in government structure behind the scenes in Parliament.
"If the idea is to use the round tables simply as a folding screen, as a means of letting off steam, while holding the actual reform in a close manner, it will not add trust," he said.
New York Times
Source: http://www.smh.com.au/world/kremlin-flags-ukraine-pullback-but-nato-doesnt-see-it-20140520-zrhzl.html#ixzz32FQsuJ9i
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