MOSCOW. April 19 (Interfax-AVN) - Russia will withdraw several peacekeeping units from Kosovo and Bosnia in the near future in the framework of Russian military contingents reduction within KFOR and SFOR, Colonel Vladimir Goryainov, chief of the peacekeeping department in the Land Forces Command, told Interfax- Military News Agency on Friday.
"The first train with personnel and combat equipment is to leave for Russia on April 22. The 50-percent reduction of Russian peacekeepers in the Balkans takes place in accordance with Russian President Vladimir Putin's decision, the Russian government's regulation and Armed Forces Chief-of-Staff Anatoly Kvashnin's directive," Goryainov said.
The Russian Military Contingent in Kosovo will be reduced from 1,200 to 600 people. "We also plan to withdraw over 200 automobiles and some 50 pieces of ordnance," Goryainov went on.
He noted that the number of people serving in the 1st Russian separate airborne brigade within SFOR would be brought down to about 300. By July 1 the brigade will have been transformed into a military contingent which is to comprise about 270 servicemen.
"The withdrawal of peacekeeping contingents from the Balkans will happen gradually in a combined matter - some will go by train and the others by military transport aviation planes," Goryainov stressed. Six trains will be needed to relocate personnel and military hardware from Bosnia and 11 more to withdraw people and assets subject to reduction from Kosovo.
The withdrawal will end before July 1, Goryainov added.