Russia announced on Friday February 18 that it was withdrawing tanks deployed near the Ukrainian border, which are returning to their garrisons, and moving bombers from annexed Crimea, amid Western fears of an attack from Ukraine.
Read alsoFrançois d'Orcival: "
Liar's poker game or Russian roulette in Ukraine?
»
“
Another military train carrying personnel and equipment belonging to units of the tank army of the Western Military District has returned to its permanent bases
” in the Nizhny Novgorod region, more than a thousand kilometers from Ukraine , the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.
These forces return to their garrisons “
after completing a planned training exercise
”.
A spokesman for the Russian fleet, quoted by the Interfax agency, Alexeï Roulev, announced to him that ten Su-24 bombers based in Crimea had left this annexed peninsula in 2014 for other airfields in Russia within the framework of an exercise.
Russia has, according to the United States, deployed more than 150,000 troops in the vicinity of Ukraine, raising fears of an invasion of that country.
Moscow denies any plan in this direction and announced since Tuesday a series of withdrawals of its troops, images of trains loaded with equipment in support, but without convincing the West.