Russia to Remove Troops: Ukraine Conflict

According to a CNN report, the President of Russia Vladimir Putin has called 17,600 troops to be moved away from the Ukraine border, and back to their bases. He was said to have done this because of completed training exercises. Many people believe this would be a positive step in de-escalating the conflict, given the heightened tensions between Ukraine and the rebels that are believed to be backed by Russia. In addition to this development, there are two other events that may suggest further de-escalation of stress between Ukraine and Russia; the report also points out that “Russia’s announcement of the troop pullback comes as Putin and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko prepare to meet in Milan on sidelines of the Asia-Europe Meeting later this month. In another sign that tensions have cooled somewhat, Ukrainian emergency services will be granted passage Monday to the site in rebel-controlled eastern Ukraine where Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 crashed in July.”

Hopefully these actions will be the beginning of Russia’s removal from supporting rebels in Ukraine, and hopefully this will lead to a end to the crisis, since thousands have died, and many more have been greatly affected by this conflict. Unfortunately, the violence is still continuing. For example, “[t]en civilians were killed when a school in the city of Donetsk was shelled, according to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. And one day later, Swiss Red Cross worker Laurent DuPasquier was killed when a shell landed near an International Committee of the Red Cross building in Donetsk.”