Russia to withdraw troops before Ukraine elections

Bloomberg News

Tensions subsided in Ukraine as President Vladimir Putin said he wanted to ease the way for a May 25 presidential election by pulling back Russian troops.

"Any political process is better than an armed standoff," Putin told reporters yesterday in Shanghai, where Russia signed a deal to supply gas to China. The United States and its allies would see evidence of a troop withdrawal from satellite images "when the weather is good," he said.

Reports of separatist violence and other crimes have fallen by as much as half following a call last week by Ukraine's richest man for an end to the strife gripping the country, Larysa Volkova, a spokeswoman for the Interior Ministry, said yesterday.

Billionaire Rinat Akhmetov urged the creation of unarmed patrols largely made up of workers from his metals and other factories in the eastern Donetsk region to help restore order.

The national ballot is taking center stage in the Ukrainian crisis as the violence has ebbed in the easternmost Donetsk and Luhansk regions, where pro-Russian separatists have seized government buildings and proclaimed People's Republics.

White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters that "we have seen some indications of activity on the border" of Ukraine, although it's too early to say it's the start of a withdrawal by the Russian forces. That marks a change from comments made by the Pentagon Tuesday that there was no evidence of a Russian troop pullback.

Ukraine's government is continuing its armed operations against separatist rebels in the breakaway regions, a spokesman for the campaign, Vladyslav Seleznyov, said in Kiev. He said 24 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed and 85 wounded in the fighting.