The World : Soviet Troop Pullouts Told

The Soviet Union, set to implement major arms cuts this month, has already withdrawn paratroop battalions from East Germany and Czechoslovakia, Neues Deutschland, the East German Communist Party daily, said. It said the withdrawal was disclosed by Soviet Defense Minister Dmitri T. Yazov in an interview with the Soviet newspaper Izvestia. Yazov did not say how many troops were involved. He also was quoted as saying 700 of the 5,300 tanks scheduled for withdrawal from Eastern Europe had been sent back to the Soviet Union as part of cuts announced by Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev in December. The official start to the Soviet cuts is Tuesday, when artillery and missiles begin leaving Hungary.