AA / Minsk, Belarus / Ali Cura
Due to growing tensions in eastern Ukraine, joint military exercises by the armed forces of Russia and Belarus will continue beyond their original schedule, the Belarusian Defense Minister said on Sunday. Viktor Khrenin.
The announcement came as military activities intensified on the borders of Russia and Belarus and the situation worsened in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine, controlled by pro-rebels. Russians.
Khrenin said Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin decided to continue activities to monitor the readiness of the forces of the two countries.
He also accused NATO of arming countries bordering Russia and Belarus and setting up military installations there, which poses a threat to Moscow and Minsk.
The Russian-Belarusian military exercise, dubbed “Allied Determination-2022”, was originally scheduled to last ten days and cover five training areas in the west and south-west of Belarusian territory, near the country’s borders with Poland and Ukraine.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had earlier announced that the drills would end on Sunday.
Tensions have risen dramatically in eastern Ukraine in recent days, with reports of increasing ceasefire violations, multiple shellings and the evacuation of civilians from separatist areas. pro-Russians from Donetsk and Luhansk.
Western countries have accused Russia of deploying nearly 150,000 troops along the Ukrainian border, raising fears that it is preparing a military offensive once morest its former Soviet neighbor.
Moscow has consistently denied any plans to invade Ukraine and accused Western countries of compromising Russia’s security due to NATO’s expansion to its borders.
*Translated from English by Mourad Belhaj
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