The Russian military announced on Thursday a new withdrawal from the Crimean Peninsula, which the country captured in March 2014.
“Units of the southern military district that ended tactical exercises at training grounds on the Crimean Peninsula are returning by rail to their permanent bases,” the defence ministry said in a statement to news agencies.
The announcement on Thursday is the latest reported removal of Russian troops whose numbers are estimated by the West to be more than 100,000, suggesting that the country could be preparing for invasion.
The leaders of NATO, the United States and Europe have denied there is any meaningful reduction in Russian troops, but Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed Moscow is actually rotating its military personnel.
In 2014, Russia took control of the Crimean Peninsula and backed pro-Russia separatists in fighting that erupted there that year and has claimed more than 14,000 lives to date.
