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Ukraine leader warns Russian troops can return at ‘any moment’
KIEV, April 27, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday urged his country’s army to remain on alert despite Russia’s drawdown of its troops from Ukraine’s borders, saying they could return “at any moment”.
Kiev has been battling pro-Russian separatists in the eastern Donetsk and Lugansk regions since 2014, following Moscow’s annexation of the Crimean peninsula.
Russia in recent weeks had deployed up to 100,000 troops near Ukraine’s northern and eastern borders and in Crimea, raising concerns of a major escalation.
But on Friday, Moscow announced that it had started withdrawing its armed forces, with Kiev and NATO welcoming the announcement.
“The fact the troops are withdrawing doesn’t mean the army should not be ready for the possibility troops could return to our borders any moment,” Zelensky said while visiting Ukrainian positions near Crimea.
Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said this week that Washington had registered movements of some Russian troops away from the Ukraine’s borders, but added that it was “too soon to tell” whether Russia was pulling back all forces.
A ceasefire that took hold last July has been shredded this year, with clashes sharply increasing between Ukrainian forces and separatists since January.
On Tuesday, the Ukrainian army reported one soldier killed and three others injured after their vehicle hit a mine.
Around 30 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed since the start of the year compared with 50 in all of 2020, while the separatists have reported at least 20 military deaths.
The separatists are widely seen as having Russia’s political and military backing — which Moscow denies — in the conflict that has claimed more than 13,000 lives.
BSS/AFP/BZC/1038HRS