Ukraine Says Russian Troops Pulling Back from Border

(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Kateryna Choursina – October 13, 2014) Russian troops are pulling back from the border with Ukraine, the government in Kiev said, calling it a positive move.

President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian forces to withdraw from Ukraine’s borders on Oct. 11. About 17,600 soldiers, who were on drills since the summer in the Rostov region, are to be redeployed at their permanent bases, according to a statement on the Kremlin’s website.

“We have information that military units that were arriving at the border with Ukraine and were deployed in camps are now seen moving to go back to areas of permanent deployment,” Ukrainian military spokesman Andriy Lysenko told reporters in the capital today. “The withdrawal of military units, especially aviation and armed vehicles, from the Ukrainian border is a positive process and it helps decrease tensions in the area.”

Ukraine, the U.S. and the European Union accuse the government in Moscow of providing weapons, financing and troops to pro-Russian separatists in southeastern Ukraine, an allegation Moscow denies. The two sides imposed tit-for-tat sanctions that have slowed economic growth in both the EU and Russia, causing the latter to flirt with a recession.

EU Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger may visit Kiev for natural gas talks on Oct. 20, the day before the two sides are scheduled to meet with Russian representatives in Berlin, Ukraine’s Energy Minister Yuri Prodan told reporters in Kiev. The delegations are seeking to reach an accord on Russian natural gas supplies to Ukraine and to EU countries.

Fewer Attacks

Lysenko said pro-Russian separatists are attacking fewer locations in the war-torn east, while government forces repelled three rebel attacks on Donetsk airport yesterday.

State-owned newswire RIA Novosti, citing the Defense Ministry in Moscow, had already reported that Russian soldiers started their withdrawal.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko dismissed Defense Minister Valeriy Geletey yesterday.

Poroshenko said in a Twitter posting today that he has nominated Stepan Poltorak, the chief commander of the Ukrainian national guard, to become the new defense minister. The nomination needs parliamentary approval before Poltorak can take office.

The new military chief will be Ukraine’s fourth defense minister since the ouster of President Viktor Yanukovych in February. Geletey came under criticism following Ukrainian armed forces’ losses in a pro-Russian separatist offensive in late August. Poroshenko fired the head of Ukraine’s border guard service last week and replaced the governor of the war-torn Donetsk region.

Missiles, Artillery

Separatists made 36 assaults on government positions in a 24-hour period Saturday to Sunday, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said on Facebook. Rebels also used anti-tank missiles, artillery and mortars in fighting at Donetsk airport and near Debaltsevo, Avdiyivka and Shchastya.

Twelve civilians, including six women and one child, were killed in shelling attacks on Donetsk residential areas over the weekend, Interfax said, citing information from the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic press service. Two people were injured in shelling yesterday, the Donetsk city council said on its website.

“We still haven’t banished the threat of a new escalation,” German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said in an interview yesterday with Berlin’s Tagesspiegel newspaper.

While a truce, sealed Sept. 5, has reduced the bloodshed in Ukraine’s easternmost regions, it’s been broken by almost daily violence. There have been at least 331 deaths since the deal was agreed to, the United Nations estimates.

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