Category: Russian troops

Inspectors OK First Ukraine Grain Ship but No Sign yet of More

ISTANBUL—The first grain ship to leave Ukraine and cross the Black Sea under a wartime deal passed inspection Wednesday in Istanbul and headed on to Lebanon. Ukraine said 17 other vessels were “loaded and waiting permission to leave,” but there was no word yet on when they could depart. A joint civilian inspection team spent…


China Avoids Calling Russia Attack ‘Invasion’

Russian troops are moving on Ukrainian streets. But one nation has avoided calling it an invasion. And it’s the same nation that could stand to benefit from the attack. The justice department is ending a program that cracks down on Beijing’s intellectual property theft. This comes after controversies that it’s amping up racism against Asian-Americans….


Russian Troops Return Home From Kazakhstan

MOSCOW—Russia’s defense ministry says the troops that were deployed to Kazakhstan as violent demonstrations shook the country have returned home. The troops were part of a force sent as peacekeepers by the Collective Treaty Security Organization, a Russia-led military alliance of six former Soviet states. The CSTO approved the force of more than 2,000 on…


Russia-Led Bloc Starts Pulling Troops out of Kazakhstan

ALMATY—A Russia-led military bloc began pulling its troops out of Kazakhstan on Thursday after a week-long deployment during the worst bout of unrest in the Central Asian nation’s post-Soviet history. Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev asked for assistance from the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) last week after initially peaceful protests, triggered by a sharp increase…


Lithuania Says Belarus Will Keep Testing West, Urges NATO Rethink

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda said on Nov. 28 that NATO needs to adjust its stance towards Belarus, whose military is becoming more integrated with Russian armed forces. Nausėda told a news conference with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Vilnius, Lithuania, that he has been worried by…


Russian Troops Start Pulling Back From Ukrainian Border

MOSCOW—Russian troops began pulling back to their permanent bases Friday after a massive buildup that has caused Ukrainian and Western concerns. On Thursday, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu declared the sweeping maneuvers in Crimea and wide swaths of western Russia over, and he ordered the military to bring the troops that took part in them…


Ukraine Says Russia Will Soon Have Over 120,000 Troops on Its Borders

KYIV/BRUSSELS—Russia will soon have more than 120,000 troops on Ukraine’s border, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Tuesday, calling for new Western economic sanctions to deter Moscow from “further escalation.” Washington and NATO have been alarmed by the large build-up of Russian troops near Ukraine and in Crimea, the peninsula that Moscow annexed from…


EU Estimates 150,000 Russian Troops Near Ukraine’s Borders

BRUSSELS—The European Union’s foreign policy chief is estimating that Russia has already amassed 150,000 Russian troops in their biggest military buildup ever near Ukraine’s borders. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell declined to say where he got the 150,000 Russian troop figure from but it is bigger than the 110,000 estimate provided by Ukrainian Defense Minister…