MOSCOW. June 17 (Interfax-AVN) - The first train with Russian peacekeepers and their military hardware will leave Kosovo late on Tuesday, Lieutenant General Valery Yevnevich, deputy commander-in-chief of the Russian Land Forces in charge of peacekeeping troops, told Interfax-Military News Agency.
"The loading of the first train with servicemen and hardware of the Russian military contingent in Kosovo is about to complete, and it will leave for Russia at about 8:00 p.m. Moscow time (1600 GMT) today. According to the plan, the last train will leave on July 23," Yevnevich said.
Ten trains and several aircraft flights will be required to withdraw the entire Russian contingent from Kosovo, he noted.
"The Russian contingent in Bosnia numbering 320 servicemen have already been pulled out. The first train arrived at its destination terminal in the Leningrad military district on Sunday, and the other trains will reach the terminal in two or three days. They are already on the Russian territory," Yevnevich said.
According to him, a group of Defense Ministry will leave to attend the official withdrawal ceremony in Kosovo on July 2.
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 numbered 320 servicemen. The Russian peacekeepers were included in the international stabilization forces (SFOR) in January 1996.
According to the Defense Ministry, Russia spent 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.