MOSCOW, March 25 (RIA Novosti) - Ukraine's military personnel may leave the Crimean Peninsula unhindered, but the Russian military has yet to decide if they will be permitted to take their weapons with them, the Kremlin said Tuesday.
The Russian Defense Ministry said over the weekend that less than 15 percent of the 18,000 Ukrainian troops stationed in Crimea decided to leave the peninsula after it rejoined Russia last week.
"We said a long time ago that [Ukrainian] military personnel may leave freely from the territory of Crimea," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Peskov added that Russia's Ministry of Defense will have the authority to decide if Ukrainian servicemen can leave the peninsula with their service weapons.
As Crimea's reunification process began last week, a total of 147 military units in the predominantly ethnic Russian region replaced Ukrainian flags with Russian ones and applied to join the Russian armed forces.
Shortly after Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree last Friday to ratify the reunification treaty, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said those soldiers wishing to continue their service with the Ukrainian armed forces were free to leave Crimea and will receive the required assistance to do so.
Putin instructed the defense minister to ensure that Ukrainian state symbols, currently being replaced with Russian ones all around Crimea, are being treated with due respect.
