Russian President Vladimir Putin during his meeting with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko in St. Petersburg today announced plans to hold Russian-Belarusian exercises in Belarus in February-March 2022.
“We will spend it at the beginning of the year, the military will agree there, in March, February, I don’t know when they will decide,” Putin said.
Lukashenko, for his part, noted that he had long asked the Russian leader that the countries did not stop in cooperation in the defense industry, the military-industrial complex.
“I know that you and your military are considering my proposals for exercises on the territory of Belarus. I would like these decisions to be taken by you. This will benefit the Belarusian-Russian relations, ”Lukashenka said.
Russia and Belarus conducted major exercises from 10 to 15 September 2021. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, about 200 thousand soldiers, up to 760 pieces of equipment and 15 ships took part in them.
In November 2021, Russia also held exercises in Belarus. However, in the course of their conduct, two Russian servicemen were killed. The Russian department clarified that the accident occurred on November 12 during the landing of a unit of the Airborne Forces on an unfamiliar landing site near the Belarusian city of Grodno.
In early December, Ukraine said that military maneuvers by Belarus and Russia could threaten Kiev, and it must react. As the colonel and ex-chief of intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine Pyotr Nedzelsky explained, history shows that many armed conflicts began with similar “peaceful” exercises, a lot of military equipment and personnel gathered on the spot and the exercises then developed into open confrontation and “aggression against a specific neighboring country”.
According to Nedzelsky, Ukraine’s announcement of full combat readiness now would be “a justified and expedient decision.” He pointed out that it is worth strengthening the military locations in the regions bordering the territory of the exercises.
A similar position is taken by the ex-Minister of Defense of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic Igor Strelkov. According to him, the course announced by Alexander Lukashenko for a close military alliance with Russia in the event of aggression from Ukraine does not bode well for Kiev.
“For Ukraine, the open transition of Belarus to the camp of the Russian Federation is already a serious blow,” he is sure.
According to Strelkov, if Belarus takes the side of Russia in the conflict with Ukraine, and Kiev wants to solve the problem of Donbass by military means, then “from a military point of view, the need to divert forces and means (of Ukraine) to a sufficiently long Belarusian-Ukrainian border cannot not to weaken the grouping of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, opposing the corps of the people’s militia of Donetsk and Lugansk and, in the future, Russian troops. “
In November 2021, the American media repeatedly reported that Russia was concentrating its troops on the border with Ukraine. This was followed by official warnings with threats to increase sanctions in the event of Russian aggression against Ukraine. In addition, journalists reported on various plans for the invasion of Russian troops into the territory of Ukraine.
The Kremlin called these messages a targeted information campaign aimed at presenting Russia as a threat to the process of resolving the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
The Russian authorities were also accused of waging a hybrid war against Poland and the West. According to BFM, Polish political analyst Jaroslav Guzy believes that the Kremlin is using secretive tactics and that its actions are not obvious to ordinary people. Moreover, the events on the Polish-Belarusian border are one of the elements of an undeclared war.
According to the political scientist, it is not Belarus that is “fighting” against the West; it is not defending its own interests. The head of the republic, Alexander Lukashenko, plays the role of a “battering ram”, and the Kremlin easily controls him, added Guzy.
Source: Rosbalt
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