NEWSWATCH Reuters: “Putin: Russia Did Have People in Ukraine Doing ‘Certain Military Tasks'”
… Putin said … Russia did have personnel in eastern Ukraine who were carrying out certain military tasks but denied Moscow had deployed regular troops …. ‘We never said there were no people there who were carrying out certain tasks including in the military sphere’ Putin [said]. ‘… that does not mean there are Russian (regular) troops there, feel the difference.’
Putin also raised the prospect of Russia encouraging Ukrainian rebels to work towards a political settlement, and indicated that Russia did not anticipate sanctions against Ukraine over an EU-Ukraine trade deal, even while predicting that Russian-Ukrainian trade would have a negative trend.
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