Russia To Reduce Troops At Ukraine Border After Weekslong ...

A Ukrainian serviceman looks through a periscope at his position on the fronline against Russia-backed separatists, not far from Donetsk, Ukraine, on Thursday.Russia says it will begin a phased reduction of troops from its border with neighboring Ukraine – apparently ending a deployment that had alarmed Kyiv and Western observers concerned about a possible repeat of Moscow's 2014 annexation of Crimea.Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, speaking on Thursday after overseeing drills in Crimea involving more than 10,000 troops, appeared to suggest that the ominous troop buildup on the border was more or less a routine training exercise.He ordered ground troops to return to bases in Vladikavkaz and Novosibirsk and airborne units to Pskov, Ivanovo and the Krasnodar region, beginning Friday and finishing by May 1. Russian navy warships during an exercise of the Russian Armed Forces at the Opuk training ground on the Black Sea coast, on Thursday.Russia seized Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and is supplying an armed insurgency in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine, which borders Russia.Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, welcomed the de-escalation by Russia but said Kyiv would remain vigilant."The reduction of troops on our border proportionally reduces tension," Zelenskiy wrote on Twitter.