These troops will form the “regional military grouping” tasked with defending Belarus against an alleged Ukrainian threat.
The first Russian soldiers from the new Moscow-Minsk military group have arrived in Belarus, Belarusian authorities said on Saturday, after announcing this week the deployment of the force to defend the country’s borders against an alleged Ukrainian threat.
“The first platoons of Russian soldiers forming the regional military grouping have arrived in Belarus,” the Belarusian Defense Ministry said in a statement, without specifying the number of Russian soldiers deployed in this framework. The ministry released images of military trains and trucks, as well as Russian soldiers being greeted by women in folkloric outfits with bread and salt, a tradition of Slavic hospitality.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Monday accused Poland, Lithuania and Ukraine of preparing “terrorist” attacks and an “uprising” in Belarus and announced the deployment of this regional military group.
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Belarus assures that this force is only defensive and aims to secure its border, while Minsk has accused Kyiv of preparing an offensive, raising fears about its direct intervention in the conflict in Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday accused Moscow of wanting to “draw Belarus to war” and called on the G7 to organize an international monitoring mission on the Ukraine-Belarus border.
Belarus, an ally of Russia in its conflict with Ukraine, has already lent the Russian army its territory for its offensive against Ukraine, but the Belarusian army has not yet taken part in the fighting on Ukrainian territory. The invasion of Belarusian forces in the neighboring country would mark a new escalation of the conflict in Ukraine. But Minsk assures that it has no plans to send its army, which is much smaller than Moscow’s, to fight alongside the Russians in Ukraine.
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