Russian troops still at Ukrainian border despite withdrawal pledge, NATO says
May 19, 2014 -- Updated 1604 GMT (0004 HKT)
Pro-Russia armed militants guard a
checkpoint in Slovyansk, Ukraine, on Monday, May 19, blocking a major
highway to Kharkiv. Tensions remain high across the country's east,
where pro-Russia separatists staged a referendum on independence on May
11 and presidential elections are set for May 25.
HIDE CAPTION
Crisis in Ukraine
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Senior U.S. official says Russian troops are "up on the border in a menacing posture"
- NATO says withdrawal would be "first step to de-escalating the situation"
- Russia has said troops were conducting a routine exercise that has ended
- The presence of 40,000 Russian troops on the border has spurred fears of an invasion
President Vladimir Putin
ordered tens of thousands of troops near the Ukraine border to return to
their bases, presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday. The
withdrawal has started but could take some time to finish, he said.
But despite Moscow's
assertion, there were no signs of the troops' withdrawal, NATO Secretary
General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said hours later.
A senior U.S.
administration official echoed the sentiment, while Kiev said it's
monitoring the situation to ensure the troops are returning to their
permanent bases.
Rasmussen reiterated the need for the withdrawal and said he would "be the first" to welcome it.
"I think it's the third
Putin statement on withdrawal of Russian troops ... but so far we
haven't seen any withdrawal at all," he said. "Withdrawal of Russian
troops will be the first step to de-escalating the situation."
Ukraine's presidential
election scheduled for Sunday is crucial, Rasmussen said, and Russia and
Ukrainian separatists should practice restraint to ensure it goes on as
planned.
"We urge the armed
pro-Russian separatist groups to stop their illegal activities. ...
Russia should stop their support for these armed groups," he said.
"Russia should
demonstrate a clear will to let the presidential election to go forward.
The presidential election constitutes the best chance to find a
sustainable solution to the crisis in Ukraine."
Russia's 'significant forces'
Putin's decision to amass 40,000 troops along Ukraine's eastern border triggered fears of an invasion ahead of the election.
Moscow defended the troop buildup, saying it was a routine exercise that has since ended.
Two weeks ago, Putin
said Russian troops had pulled away from Ukraine's border and were
merely conducting "regular exercises at the test grounds." At that time,
NATO and Western officials said they saw no sign of widespread troop
withdrawals.
But the senior U.S. administration official disputed Russia's assertion that they were routine exercises
"The fact is that Russia
has been maintaining significant forces in forward deployment areas
along Ukraine's border," the official said. "They have not been
conducting routine training activities. They've been up on the border in
a menacing posture, and we've been concerned about this military
buildup and have been consistently calling on Russia to remove its
troops back to their home bases and end this threatening behavior."
The official said the White House is monitoring the issue for evidence of withdrawal.
"As you'll recall,
they've made similar claims before. They made them at the end of March
and didn't follow through, so we'll be tracking this closely over the
course of today and the coming days, and we'll want to see clear, firm
evidence of this move before we make any judgment," the official said
Monday.
The United States, which
along with other Western countries has sanctioned Russia for its
disputed takeover of Crimea, has threatened additional punishment for
Russia if it fails to pull its troops back from the border.
Tensions in the east
Russian officials have
said they reserve the right to protect the interests of Russian citizens
and Russian-language speakers in Ukraine's east, which traditionally
leans toward Moscow.
Tensions in that region
remain high, with ongoing reports of violence and growing human rights
abuses. Anti-terrorism operations that started in April in the Donetsk
and Luhansk regions have killed 24 Ukrainian servicemen so far, said
Valentyn Nalyvaichenko, head of the Ukrainian Security Service. He did
not provide any more details.
In one of the latest
incidents, Russian separatists clashed with Ukrainian border guards
Saturday after a separatist leader was detained at a checkpoint.
Valeriy Bolotov, the
self-declared governor of a "people's republic" in Luhansk, was detained
by security forces in Dovzhanskiy. Attackers freed him after a
firefight, but he was wounded and went to Russia for medical treatment,
separatist spokesman Vasiliy Nikitin said.
Over the weekend, the
Russian Foreign Ministry accused Ukrainian troops of attacking Ukrainian
citizens and questioned whether Sunday's scheduled elections could be
held amid the chaos.
"Such punitive action
against its own citizens shows the hypocrisy of the Kiev authorities," a
ministry statement said, referring to an international pact agreed to
last month that called for an end to violence.
On Friday, the United Nations released a report
on abuses in eastern Ukraine, saying it had recorded cases of targeted
killings, torture, beatings, abductions and sexual harassment, as well
as intimidation of the media.
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