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Blinken says US ‘very carefully’ tracking Russia’s troop pullback from Ukrainian border

Top US diplomat said earlier, "there are more forces amassed on the border with Ukraine than any time since 2014"

WASHINGTON, May 3. /TASS/. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has underlined that the US is "very carefully" monitoring the pullback of Russian forces from the Ukrainian border in his interview with CBS broadcast on Sunday.

The interviewer asked Blinken, "That's been verified that they are pulling back?" "Starting now. We're watching that very, very carefully," he responded.

A part of the interview was shown on Thursday, the top US diplomat then said, "There are more forces amassed on the border with Ukraine than any time since 2014, when Russia actually invaded." "What we have seen in the last few days is apparently a decision to pull back some of those forces and we've seen some of them in fact start to pull back," he added.

Western countries were repeatedly expressing concerns over remarks made by top Ukrainian brass saying that Russia was ramping up its troops along the Ukrainian border. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that movement of Russian borders in Russia should not raise concerns in other states because it does not threaten them in any way.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on April 22 ordered to finish inspections in the Southern and Western Military Districts because all the set goals had been achieved. Shoigu told to complete the return of the troops who were involved in the drills in southern Russia to their permanent location bases before May 1.

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