<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"After weeks of escalating tension between Russia and Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that he endorsed Ukraine\u2019s plan to hold presidential elections on May 25, calling it a step \u201Cin the right direction.\u201D \n\"Let me stress that the presidential election the Kiev authorities plan to hold is a step in the right direction, but it will not solve anything unless all of Ukraine\u2019s people first understand how their rights will be guaranteed once the election has taken place,\" Putin said in Wednesday's news conference, which is embedded below in Russian.\nSee also: Photos: Face-to-Face With Ukraine's Pro-Russian Separatists\n\nPutin's support of a presidential election in Ukraine comes as a surprise given that, as recently as May 3, his spokesperson Dmitry Peskov called the prospect of an election in Ukraine \u201Cabsurd.\u201D \nFor weeks, armed pro-Russian separatists have strategically stationed themselves throughout cities in eastern Ukraine, and they have been pushing for a referendum vote \u2014 similar to the one Crimea had in March \u2014 for May 11. However, Putin urged pro-Russian separatists to delay this Sunday's referendum, in order to help create the necessary conditions for dialogue, he claims.\nPro-Russian separatists aren't happy at all with Putin\n\nPro-Russian militia drive away in the bed of their truck after a tense standoff around a military compound in Donetsk.Image:  Konstantin ChernichkinWord of Putin's comments spread quickly in the Pro-Russian insurgent-controlled Sloviansk on Wednesday evening local time. \nSitting on bench in the eastern Ukrainian city's central square, where a large stone monument to the former Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin casts a long shadow, Anna and Lyuda, friends who grew up together told Mashable that they would like to see their hometown eventually brought into the Kremlin's fold. Pushing the referendum back is a bad idea and risks thrusting the embattled region into further chaos, they say. \n\"We need to know\u2014the world needs to know\u2014that this... is the Donetsk People's Republic,\" says Anna, gesturing to the buildings and town folk around. \"A referendum is the only way\u2014the only chance we have at becoming a legitimate independent state.\"\nA representative from the Donetsk Peoples\u2019 Republic on Wednesday told Interfax it \u201Caccepts the possibility\u201D for delaying the referendum, while a spokesperson for the rebels in Sloviansk reportedly said \u201Cno comment,\u201D according to The Telegraph\u2019s Roland Oliphant.\nHowever, a more defiant sentiment flashed across television screens in Donetsk on Wednesday after Putin's comments. It seems as though pro-Russian separatists are still pushing for people to head to the polls to vote on Sunday. \n\n\"#Donetsk People's Republic\" still promoting the May 11 referendum, encouraging people to vote on local television. pic.twitter.com/zhJRFg6NIf\n\u2014 Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) May 7, 2014\n\nPutin says Russian troops are no longer on Ukraine's border, but U.S. sees no change\nThe Russian president blamed the current crisis in Ukraine, which he admitted is now \"taking the worst direction,\" on the coup d\u2019etat in Kiev in February, when protesters ousted former President Viktor Yanukovych. \nPutin asked Kiev to withdraw its military troops, which were deployed last week to eastern Ukraine to fight pro-Russian separatists. He then said Russia would pull back its troops as well.\n\"We're always being told that our forces on the Ukrainian border are a concern. We have withdrawn them,\" Putin said, according to the New York Times. \"Today they are not on the Ukrainian border, they are in places where they conduct their regular tasks on training grounds.\u201D\nA Pentagon spokesperson, however, tells ABC News, \"We've seen no change\" along the Russian border. The BBC also reports that NATO says it has seen no change along the Ukraine-Russia border.\n\nNato \"has not seen any significant change\" to Russian troops on Ukraine border, denying Putin withdrawal claim http://t.co/wVeZywknXB\n\u2014 BBC Breaking News (@BBCBreaking) May 7, 2014\n\nThe White House reportedly rejected Putin's claims as well. \n\nWhite House rejects Putin claim of troop withdrawal from Ukraine's border.\"There's no evidence that withdrawal has taken place:\"@jearnest44\n\u2014 PETER MAER (@petermaercbs) May 7, 2014\n\nFor weeks, the Russian military has amassed between 30,000 and 40,000 troops on Ukraine's border, a force that Gen. Philip Breedlove, NATO's supreme allied commander Europe, had called a \u201Dmassive military buildup along Ukraine's borders.\u201D Last month, NATO released satellite images showing the troops along the border.\n\nRussian military buildup at formerly vacant Buturlinovka air base on April 2, 2014.Why the sudden shift in tone?\nPresident Obama and Putin have spoken over the phone multiple times over the past few months to talk about Russia's escalating involvement with Ukraine. While Putin maintained he was trying to protect ethnic Russians living in Ukraine, Obama warned that military intervention would be punished. \nSince those calls, Obama has unleashed a variety of sanctions targeting Putin and his inner circle. However, the first rounds of sanctions didn't have the impact for which the White House was hoping. Last week, Obama called on German Chancellor Angela Merkel\u2014who has been in consistent contact with Putin as Russia and Germany have close economic ties\u2014for help with levying more sanctions that would truly hurt Putin.\nPutin\u2019s comments on Wednesday come after his meeting with Switzerland President Didier Burkhalter, who was present at Wednesday's press conference, to discuss the situation in Ukraine. Burkhalter, who is also chairman of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, said OSCE will reportedly now draft a \"roadmap\" aiming to resolve the crisis.\n\nRussian President Vladimir Putin (R) greets OSCE Chairman-in-office Didier Burkhaler (L) on May 7, 2014 in the Kremlin, Moscow, Russia.Image: Sasha Mordovets/Getty ImagesThe roadmap will be sent to the parties in the April 17 Geneva Statement. The key provisions of the roadmap, the ITAR-TASS News Agency says, are ceasefire, de-escalation of tensions, dialogue and elections.\n      window._msla=window.loadScriptAsync||function(src,id){if(document.getElementById(id))return;var js=document.createElement('script');js.id=id;js.src=src;document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0].parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);};\n_msla(\"//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\",\"twitter_jssdk\");"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2014/05/07/putin-russia-ukraine-border-elections/>