Russia’s military units in the regions near Ukraine yesterday began moving to railway stations and airfields en route to their home bases, the Russian Ministry of Defense said.
Military units in the Belgorod, Bryansk and Rostov regions started marching back and are expected to arrive at their home bases before June 1, the ministry said in a statement carried by Russian news agencies.
Yet NATO, which estimates that Russia has 40,000 troops along the border with Ukraine, repeated yesterday that it could not yet see any signs of a Russian pullout.
Photo: Reuters
US Secretary of the Army John McHugh yesterday said the US has spotted some Russian troop movements near the Ukraine border, but no sign of a large-scale withdrawal.
“What we know thus far is that there has been certain troop movements, but I have received no confirmation, either through Pentagon sources or NATO sources, that there has been a wholesale repositioning of those troops off the border,” McHugh told a news conference during a visit to Estonia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the withdrawal on Monday in what could be an attempt to ease tensions with the West over Ukraine and avoid further sanctions.
Russian television yesterday broadcast footage of columns of tanks and howitzers towed by heavy trucks. It was not immediately clear where the footage was taken.
The ministry said its units will make most of the journey by air or rail to reduce the pressure on highways.
General Vladimir Shamanov, the chief of the Russian Airborne Forces, said in televised remarks that battalions from three airborne divisions would return to their home bases within 10 days.
Meanwhile, the US is sending another warship to the Black Sea to reassure its allies over Russia’s actions in Ukraine, ahead of Sunday’s presidential election in Ukraine.
US Vice President Joe Biden, on a visit to Romania, yesterday said the West “must remain resolute in imposing greater costs to Russia” if it undermines Ukraine’s elections.
Biden blasted Russia’s seizure of the Crimean Peninsula, saying: “Europe’s borders should never again be changed at the point of a gun.”
He also said tougher sanctions must be imposed on Moscow if it undermines Sunday’s poll.
“If Russia undermines these elections on Sunday, we must remain resolute in imposing greater costs,” Biden told reporters after meeting with Romanian President Traian Basescu.
“All countries should use their influence to promote a stable environment for Ukrainian citizens to cast their ballots freely,” he said.
He also praised the pro-Western government in Kiev for its “steps to engage Ukrainians, from all parts of that country, in the east and the south, on issues of constitutional reform.”
Kiev’s Western-backed leaders are hosting a new round of national unity talks under a peace plan sponsored by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe.
An earlier two rounds failed to make any progress, with the government pointedly refusing to invite the separatists who have seized over a dozen towns in the industrial eastern belt.
Both Kiev and its Western allies see Sunday’s vote — backed only grudgingly by Moscow — as a chance to unite the culturally splintered nation and win more legitimacy in the Kremlin’s eyes.
The front-runner, chocolate baron Petro Poroshenko, has pledged to find a negotiated solution to the crisis and rebuild ties with Ukraine’s former masters in Moscow.
Kiev authorities have said that they will have a hard time ensuring that polling proceeds smoothly in eastern districts controlled by the armed insurgents.
Additional reporting by Reuters
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not