Putin issues a decree to withdraw his country from the Treaty on Conventional Weapons in Europe

And Russian President Vladimir Putin – according to the official website of Russian legal information today, Wednesday – issued a decree to withdraw his country from the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe, and to appoint Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov as the president’s representative when considering the initiative before the Russian parliament in both houses.

The text of the decree stated: “The appointment of Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov as the official representative of the President when both chambers of the Federal Assembly (parliament) consider the issue of withdrawal from the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe.”

It is noteworthy that the Treaty on Conventional Forces in Europe was signed in Paris in 1990, and in 1999 an updated version of the agreement was signed at the OSCE summit in Istanbul. The amended treaty was ratified by only 4 countries: Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine.

In 2007, Moscow suspended its participation in the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe until the rest of the NATO countries ratify the agreement and start implementing this document in good faith.

This treaty determines the number of conventional forces and weapons that Russia and European countries can deploy on the European continent.

On the ground, the Russian artillery forces thwarted 3 attempts to replace the Ukrainian forces in the forward positions.

The head of the press center for the forces of the West Group, Sergey Zibinsky, said in statements reported by “Russia Today” channel, today, Wednesday, that the Russian forces also managed to destroy an “Acacia” self-propelled howitzer.

He added that the fighters of the Western forces carried out 10 air raids on the Kobyansk axis, on gathering sites for personnel and weapons of the 14th Mechanized Brigade of the Kiev forces.

In a related context, the Russian Federal Security Service announced, today, Wednesday, that it had thwarted an assassination attempt on an official in the Zaporozhye district police, accusing the Ukrainian Military Intelligence of being behind it.