Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu earlier today announced the ‘completion of snap combat readiness checks’ in the southern and western military districts which border Ukraine.
He also ordered the general staff, the military districts’ chiefs and the airborne forces to start returning the troops to the places of their permanent deployment starting Friday. He said that Russia would conduct a detailed analysis and sum up the results of the checks.
The Russia-Ukraine border crisis threatened to blow into a full scale war with US and NATO supporting Ukraine. A NATO official commented on the de-escalation process after the Russian Defense Ministry’s announcement on the conclusion of military drills in the country’s south.
“We have taken note of the announcement by Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu. Any steps towards de-escalation by Russia would be important and well overdue”, it said.
However, the US-led NATO has said that it will remain vigilant and continue to closely monitor Russia’s ‘unjustified military build-up in and around Ukraine’. “NATO stands with Ukraine, and we continue to call on Russia to respect its international commitments and withdraw all its forces from Ukrainian territory,” the NATO official said.
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. “Ukraine is always vigilant, yet welcomes any steps to decrease the military presence & deescalate the situation in Donbass.”
Ukraine hopes to gain NATO membership and has already announced that it would take part in joint military exercises known as “Exercise Cossack Mace” with NATO forces later this year.
The tensions in Eastern Europe come at a time when the relations between Washington and Moscow are at the lowest since the Cuban Missile crisis. The U.S. ramped up sanctions against Russia in retaliation for a major cyberattack. Russia’s alleged interference in U.S. elections and reports that the Kremlin offered the Afghan Taliban bounty payments to kill American troops stationed there added to the worsening of the ties. Putin’s government has denied all the allegations.
Russia in turn alleged that the US is meddling in its affairs by supporting protests in various parts of the country over the imprisonment of Kremlin critic Navalny. Washington had expressed concern over the health of Russia’s main opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, who is in the third week of a prison hunger strike. He is reportedly in precarious health. The US threatened to impose more sanctions on Russia over Navalny’s imprisonment.
Russia has accused the US Embassy in Moscow of funding and guiding the protests in the country, a charge the US has denied.
The troop pullback is seen as a de-escalation measure from Russia which is also trying to have better relations with Ukraine and other former USSR republics.
Dr. Niranjan B Poojar 
Bhagyashree Gupta 
Balaji Subramanian