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Russia Withdraws Troops At NATO Borders: "Virtually Gone"

2022-09-30T16:31:31.110Z


Russia Withdraws Troops At NATO Borders: "Virtually Gone" Created: 09/30/2022, 18:15 By: Tim Vincent Dicke Because of the Ukraine war, Russia is withdrawing a large part of its soldiers from the northern NATO borders. What's behind it? Moscow – Russia has suffered heavy losses in the Ukraine war. The reasons for this include the supply of weapons from the West and the Ukrainian armed forces' u


Russia Withdraws Troops At NATO Borders: "Virtually Gone"

Created: 09/30/2022, 18:15

By: Tim Vincent Dicke

Because of the Ukraine war, Russia is withdrawing a large part of its soldiers from the northern NATO borders.

What's behind it?

Moscow – Russia has suffered heavy losses in the Ukraine war.

The reasons for this include the supply of weapons from the West and the Ukrainian armed forces' unconditional will to defend themselves.

As more and more Russian soldiers are being killed, Vladimir Putin has to mobilize troops from other regions - according to a media report also at the NATO borders in northern Europe.

As reported by

Foreign Policy

, Russia has withdrawn most of its troops stationed on the borders with the Baltic States and Finland.

Three senior EU defense officials told the magazine that around 80 percent of the regions' forces have been withdrawn to Ukraine.

The northern borders with NATO once had an extremely high concentration of Russian soldiers, now there is only an “emergency crew” there.

Russia sends more soldiers into the Ukraine war

According to a publicly available assessment by Estonia's foreign intelligence service, before the invasion of Ukraine began, Russia had deployed about 30,000 fighters on its northern borders: around 12,000 ground and airborne troops in the Kaliningrad exclave, 18,000 and hundreds of tanks and other heavy military vehicles in western Russia.

Russia is also withdrawing soldiers from Kaliningrad.

(Archive image) © Vitaly Nevar/imago

"The pullout we have witnessed in this region over the past seven months is very remarkable," a Nordic official who wished to remain anonymous told the magazine.

Putin is virtually blank militarily in the north.

"For decades, Russia faced us with ground troops, which have now practically disappeared." The report says that the army is mainly affected by the troop transfers.

The Russian air force and the powerful Northern Fleet have remained virtually untouched on the NATO borders.

The statements by defense officials once again cast a bad light on Kremlin chief Putin's military.

Last week, the Russian President announced a partial mobilization to conscript 300,000 men for the Ukraine conflict.

But experts are critical of the move.

News in the Ukraine war: Is the Russian threat to NATO in the north decreasing?

“Putin has already sent the best units he has to offer and that was not enough.

When you have to start pulling people off the streets to try to stabilize the situation, it looks like an act of desperation," US military expert Russel Honoré told

Newsweek

magazine .

also read

"Our value is the love of people": Putin announces Ukraine annexation in wild speech

Rusty AKs and plastic bags: video to show how Russia equips new recruits

The Ukraine War in Pictures - Destruction, Resistance and Hope

View photo gallery

Does the danger for the northern NATO partners decrease due to the mass withdrawal from the region?

Jonatan Vseviov, Secretary General of the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, does not assume so.

"They threw almost everything they had at Ukraine," he told

Foreign Policy

.

“But that's a very limited way of analyzing threats.

The immediate direct military threat is of course low at the moment, since there are no professional troops on our borders.

But that doesn't mean that Russia isn't dangerous." (tvd)

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-09-30

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