MOSCOW—President Vladimir Putin says he is pulling troops out of border regions near Ukraine to help create a positive environment ahead of Ukraine’s presidential vote — but adds that fighting with separatists there will make it hard for the Kremlin to deal with Ukraine’s next leader.

The pullout was meant to create “favourable conditions for Ukraine’s presidential vote and end speculation,” Putin told reporters Wednesday in Shanghai, China, where he attended a security summit.

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In comments broadcast on Russian television, Putin referred to U.S. and NATO remarks that they weren’t seeing any sign of the Russian withdrawal, saying “those who aren’t seeing it should look better.”

The Russian Defence Ministry said military units in the regions near Ukraine should reach their home bases before June 1.

NATO, which estimates that Russia has 40,000 troops along the border with Ukraine, repeated Wednesday it could not yet see any signs of a Russian withdrawal.

Putin’s pullout order and his statement welcoming Ukraine’s presidential election, which he had previously wanted postponed, has suggested that he has no immediate intention of sending the Russian army into eastern Ukraine, where pro-Russian insurgents have seized government buildings and clashed with Ukrainian government forces for weeks.

But the Russian leader also said it will be “very difficult for us to develop relations with people who come to power amid a punitive operation in southeastern Ukraine.”

Putin added that Russia has helped establish a dialogue between the central government in Kyiv and people in the southeast, but did not elaborate.

Many in eastern Ukraine resent the new authorities in Kyiv, who came to power after the toppling of Ukraine’s pro-Russian president after months of protests. They see the new government as nationalists bent on repressing Russian-speakers.

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Russia supports a peace plan brokered by Switzerland and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which envisages a broad amnesty and the launch of a national Ukrainian dialogue that focuses on decentralization of power and upholding the status of the Russian language. A third round table was held Wednesday in the southern city of Mykolaiv.

Russia favours decentralization for Ukraine because that way it can keep more influence over Ukraine’s Russian-speaking regions.

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