"That means they have got to be rooted out by ground troops.
That could involve irregular troops, cyber attacks and inflaming tensions with ethnic Russian minorities in nations seen as part of the country's "near abroad" by Moscow.
With a few exceptions, it was hardly possible to imagine Embassy officials or troops in Baghdad taking great risks to get their Iraqi contacts out before we left.
There he addressed British and Omani troops on the equally harsh soil of the Arabian peninsula - not far from where the world's most wanted man lived until he found his lethal calling.
Despite Moscow's statements that troops had been withdrawn to their home bases, only a few units have returned to their place of permanent deployment, the analysts said.
"In connection with the completion of the routine springtime training phase for troops that involved their deployment to training grounds in the Rostov, Belgorod and Bryansk regions, among others, the president of Russia gave the command to the defence minister to return the troops taking part in the exercises to their home bases," the Kremlin said.
The US satellite photos showed Russian troops at bases 50 miles from the border.
Although a growing body of evidence, including interviews with Russian soldiers, indicates that Moscow has sent active-duty troops and equipment to support the pro-Russia rebels over the past year, the president, Vladimir Putin, continues to deny his forces' participation in the conflict.
Parts of both cities have become a no-go zone for Iraq's beleaguered troops, who have been battered and humiliated by Isis, a group of marauders unparalleled in Mesopotamia since the time of the Mongols.
The group has since been pushed back with the help of offensives launched by troops from Chad and Niger while Cameroon has fought off militants along its borders.
Over the winter of 1937, Japanese troops in Nanjing unleashed a relentless onslaught of looting, burning, torture and murder.
