Enlarge image
Russia's Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu
Photo: Vadim Savitsky / AP
Russia has announced the withdrawal of troops it had stationed near the Ukrainian border and on the annexed Crimean peninsula in recent weeks.
The goals of the military maneuvers have been achieved, said Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu during a troop visit to the Crimea.
He therefore ordered the units to withdraw to their bases from Friday.
At first it remained unclear whether this would mean a withdrawal of all troops that Russia had recently relocated to the Ukrainian border.
The country had tens of thousands of soldiers stationed near the border with Ukraine.
The exact number remained unknown.
The EU foreign representative Josep Borrell assumed there were more than 100,000 soldiers.
It is the largest troop deployment since the conflict began.
Shoigu traveled to the Crimea for maneuvers on Thursday.
The Ministry of Defense said
he had flown over the training area in the helicopter and got an idea of the
"
operational readiness
" of
the units.
Ground troops, warships, combat aircraft and air defense units took part in the maneuvers.
Last week, Russia announced restrictions on shipping in the Crimean area.
The US government assessed this as an escalation of the conflict.
The EU spoke of an
"
extremely worrying development
"
.
NATO demanded free access to the Ukrainian ports from Russia.
In the Ukraine conflict, the situation between Kiev and Moscow has been coming to a head again for several weeks.
In the conflict between pro-Russian separatists and the Ukrainian army in eastern Ukraine, which has been going on since 2014, more than 13,000 people have been killed so far.
Since mid-February there has been increased fighting again, which has further undermined an already fragile ceasefire.
asa / AFP / Reuters