The Russian President Vladimir Putin asserted his country’s readiness to replace the Austrian peacekeeping troops in the Golan Heights with Russian military units in case the United Nations requested this measure.

The Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed on Friday his country’s readiness to replace the Austrian peacekeeping troops in the Golan Heights with Russian military units in case the United Nations requested this measure.

“Taking into consideration the raging conditions on the Golan Heights nowadays, we could replace the Austria troops that were withdrawn from the buffer zone between the Zionist troops and the Syrian army with Russian military units, in case that the Secretary-General of the United Nations requests this measure,” Putin said during his meeting with a number of Russian officers promoted to higher ranks.

Putin added that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon had asked Russia to raise the level of its participation in the peacekeeping operations organized by the United Nations, during Ban’s visit to Russia.

Austria had already announced on Thursday withdrawing its peacekeeping troops in the Golan Heights due to security considerations.