Japan to withdraw troops from South Sudan

Japan will no longer maintain peacekeeping forces in South Sudan after May, according to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Ukraine Says Stops Russian Troops Invading, Moscow Calls Statement 'Fairy Tale' (voanews.com)

KIYV— Ukraine said on Saturday it had headed off an attempt by Russia to send troops into Ukraine under the guise of peacekeepers with the aim of provoking a large-scale military conflict, a statement Moscow dismissed as a "fairy tale".

Ukraine has made several similar statements about Russian aggression during months of conflict with separatists on its eastern border with Russia that it says are backed by Moscow none of which have been independently verifiable.

Scheduled inspection of peacekeepers conducted in Transdniestria

There is a joint peacekeeping contingent in the region, consisting of 402 servicemen from Russia, 355 from Moldova and 492 from Transdniestria, as well as a group of 10 military observers from Ukraine.

The Joint Control Commission that oversees the peacekeeping operation in Transdniestria completed a scheduled inspection of joint peacekeeping posts in the region on Thursday, April 24.
“It was a scheduled inspection. We saw that the peacekeeping troops were ready to fulfill their mission,” the Russian co-chair of the Joint Commission, Vasily Korchmar, said after visiting the posts together with Oleg Belyakov of Transdniestria and Ivan Solonenko of Moldova.