NATO: Hundreds of Russian troops still in Ukraine, 20,000 close to border


Hundreds of Russian troops, including special forces, remain inside Ukraine and Moscow still has around 20,000 soldiers near the Ukrainian border, a NATO military spokesman said on Thursday.

A month ago, NATO said Russia had several thousand combat troops and hundreds of tanks and armoured vehicles in eastern Ukraine supporting pro-Russian separatists fighting the Ukrainian army.

The alliance said last week it had observed a significant pullback of Russian conventional forces from inside Ukraine since an uneasy ceasefire began on September, 5.

NATO had not seen any further reduction of Russian combat troops in Ukraine over the last week, NATO military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Jay Janzen said.

“Hundreds of Russian troops, including special forces, still remain inside Ukraine,” he said. “Around 20,000 Russian troops are still deployed in the vicinity of Russia’s border with eastern Ukraine.”

www.belsat.eu/en, via Reuters

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