UA
FR
DESelf-proclaimed president of Belarus Alexander Lukashenka claims that “Ukraine builds up its military contingent” near the borders of Belarus.
As the BelTA news agency informs, he said this while hearing a report on the joint operational training of the armed forces of Belarus and Russia.
“Ukraine continues to build up its forces by amassing the National Guard units consisting of radical nationalists. This is even worse than NATO troops. And all this happens in the immediate vicinity of the state border of our country. Again, under the guise of fighting migrants. But migrants will not get there even in a nightmare. They are not going there and are not going to enter Ukraine, we understand this very well,” Lukashenka said.
Lukashenka also noted that back in December 2021, he had agreed with Russian president Vladimir Putin to hold unscheduled “solid military exercises” to work out a plan to oppose the forces from the West (Baltic states and Poland) and the south (Ukraine).
The defence ministers of Belarus and Russia worked out a plan for joint manoeuvres of the armed forces. Exercises are expected to begin in February, but the exact date is unknown.
The Kremlin stated the day before that NATO was carrying out a gradual “invasion of Ukraine.” This situation allegedly threatens European and Russian security.
According to Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov, Russia is forced to take certain measures, in particular, to deploy their troops along the Ukrainian borders. He also said that Russia did not intend to agree with anyone on the deployment of any weapons in the Kaliningrad region.
Last week, after talks with the United States, NATO, and the OSCE, the Russian Federation was denied its request not to prohibit Ukraine from joining the North Atlantic Alliance.
Bohdan Marusyak
