Russia’s defense minister has ordered Russian troops to return to their permanent bases following the massive exercises on the Ukrainian border that have taken place to a greater extent in the Crimea region.
“I believe that the goals of the early readiness check have been met,” Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu said.
“The troops have shown their defensive capability and I have decided to complete the exercises in the southern and western military areas.”
Sergey Shoygu stressed that troops should return to their bases by May 1st, but also ordered that heavy weaponry moved in recent days to western Russia be maintained to prepare for another major Russian army readiness exercise later this year.
It is recalled that this order comes after Putin’s message to the West:
Russia has enough “patience, responsibility and common sense but no one should cross our red lines. And where those lines are, we will decide on any particular case ourselves what we will do,” Putin said.
