MOSCOW — Russia’s Defense Ministry ordered a partial pullback of
troops from the border with Ukraine on Thursday, signaling a possible
de-escalation in a military standoff that had raised alarm that a new war in
Europe could be looming.
اضافة اعلان
The order came a day after President Vladimir Putin, in an
annual state of the nation address, rattled off a list of grievances against
Western nations, including threats of new sanctions. Putin warned against
crossing a Russian “red line” with additional pressure on Moscow. The huge
buildup on the Ukrainian border was in place while he spoke.
That mobilization had increasingly worried the
North Atlantic Treaty Organization, European capitals and Washington, and was seen as an early
foreign policy challenge for the Biden administration.
The Russian defense minister, Sergei Shoigu, who had called the
buildup a test of the Russian military’s readiness, said that the units
deployed to the border area had shown their capabilities and should now return
to their regular positions.
“I think the goals of the readiness test are achieved fully,”
Shoigu said, according to the official Russian news agency Tass, which reported
that he had ordered troops to return to their barracks by May 1.
However, the order specified that troops departing from one
large field camp about 100 miles from the border with the eastern Ukrainian
region known as Donbass should leave their armored vehicles there until the
fall. Satellite images had shown hundreds of trucks and tanks parked in fields
in the area.
A Russian ban on civilian air traffic near the Ukrainian border
until Saturday also remained in effect Thursday.
Soon after Shoigu’s announcement, Ukraine’s president — who only
two days earlier addressed his nation on television, warning of the possibility
of war — said he welcomed Russia’s move.
“The reduction of troops on our border proportionally reduces
tension,” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy of Ukraine said on Twitter.
Ukraine, he added, “is always vigilant, yet welcomes any steps
to decrease the military presence” and “de-escalate the situation in Donbass.
Ukraine seeks peace.”
In Washington, a State Department spokesperson said Moscow’s
announcement of a military pullback had been noted but “what we’ll be looking
for is action.”
“We’ve heard the announcement; we’ll be watching closely for
that follow through,” Ned Price, the State Department spokesperson, told
journalists.
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