MOSCOW. June 3 (Interfax-AVN) - The withdrawal of the Russian peacekeeping forces from the Balkans will begin on Thursday and will be completed by August 1, Deputy Commander-in- Chief of the Russian Land Forces for peacekeeping operations Lieutenant General Valery Yevnevich told Interfax-Military News Agency.
"The tasks that the Russian leadership and the army command set for the peacekeepers have been completed on the whole," Yevnevich said.
The general flew to the Balkans on Tuesday to control the withdrawal. He said that Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov instructed Land Forces Commander-in-Chief Nikolai Kormiltsev to supervise the event.
A Russian Defense Ministry source told Interfax-AVN that the withdrawal of the Russian peacekeeping contingents from the Balkans will require 13 trains and seven air flights.
"The units stationed in Bosnia will be pulled out from June 5 to 14, and those in Kosovo from June 17 to July 23," the source said.
The Russian military contingent joined the KFOR stabilization force in Kosovo in June 1999. It currently numbers about 650 officers, warrants and professional privates.
The Russian peacekeeping contingent in Bosnia and Herzegovina numbers 320 servicemen. The Russian peacekeepers were included in the international stabilization forces (SFOR) in January 1996.
According to the Defense Ministry, Russia spends USD26m a year on maintaining its peacekeepers at the Balkans.
Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov earlier told Interfax that the situation in Bosnia and Kosovo has improved considerably and no longer requires the presence of Russian peacekeepers.
"I would not classify the Balkans as a trouble spot. In fact, there are no conflicts that require involvement of the military. There is no potential for the emergence of a large- scale military conflict in the region either," the minister said.
At the same time, "serious problems related to ethnic settlement and combating crime and drug trafficking still remain" in Bosnia and Kosovo, he noted.
According to Ivanov, "the operation at the Balkans will inevitably enter its police phase."
Russia will cooperate with the UN and OSCE and take part in settlement actions in the multilateral and bilateral formats to achieve stabilization at the Balkans, he added.