For more than a month, Russia has been accused by the Westerners of massaged tens of thousands of soldiers near the Ukrainian border, with a view to possible military intervention against Kiev.
Their deployment in the east and south of Ukraine had fueled the fears of Kiev and Western capitals to see Moscow preparing an offensive. More than 10,000 Russian soldiers returned to their bases after one-month exercises in southern Russia, near the Ukrainian border, Moscow announced Saturday, December 25th.
The Russian Ministry of Defense stated that these “combat training” maneuvers were held on several military land in the Russian regions of Volgograd, Rostov, Krasnodar and the annexed Crimea, areas in the immediate vicinity of Ukraine.
The ministry specifies that exercises have also taken place in Russian territories further away from the Ukrainian border, in the regions of Stavropol, Astrakhan, North Caucasus, but also in Armenia, Abkhazia and South Ossetia . In his communiqué, the Russian army does not specify in which basics these troops were redeployed.
“In order to ensure a high alert state during the end-of-year holidays on the military sites of the South military district, guard units, reinforcements and forces will be affected to deal with possible Emergency situations, “she added.
Arm of iron with the Westerners
For more than a month, Russia has been accused by the Westerners of having massaged tens of thousands of soldiers near the Ukrainian border, with a view to possible military intervention against Kiev. Moscow, who supports the East-Ukrainian separatists of Donbass, opposes a possible entry of Ukraine into NATO and claims guarantees of Westerners that this will not be able, before lightening military pressure at its border . These requests must be addressed during Russian-American negotiations in January.
The relations between Kiev and Moscow have been very tense since the Annexation in 2014 by Russia of the Ukrainian Peninsula of Crimea and the beginning of a war between the Ukrainian troops and prerussical separatists in the East. In an interview Friday with the France-Presse agency, the Secretary of the Ukrainian National Security Council, Oleksiy Danilov, has minimized the risk of an imminent escalation.
In his opinion, the number of Russian soldiers around Ukraine has only slightly increased, from 93,000 in October to about 104,000 in recent weeks. The Kremlin has repeatedly declared that they do not have an account to render the movements of its troops within the country and accused the Western countries of provoking Russia by leading military maneuvers near its borders.