Russia’s large scale military deployment in Belarus, which the United States has long warned could be used as invasion forces aimed at Ukraine, will be extended beyond Sunday when joint exercises had been scheduled to conclude, Belarus’s defence minister announced.
After repeated assurance from Russia and Belarus that drills would end this weekend as planned, the Belarusian defence minister said on Sunday that the two countries militaries would continue to “test” their capabilities because of what they claimed were heightened tensions in eastern Ukraine. The apparent extension of the exercises- which NATO has said involves 30,000 Russian troops, Moscow’s largest since the end of the Cold-war- put further pressure on Ukraine, which shares a roughly 665- mile border with Belarus that is largely unguarded.
Belarus defence minister cited an escalation of violence in eastern Ukraine as the reason for continuing the exercises, although Ukrainian officials say Russia-backed separatists are responsible for the increase in tension. Eight years after protesters were gunned down in Kyiv, Ukraine faces even greater risk.
The union state, until recently a largely aspirational entity, refers to a merged state comprising Russia and Belarus that was invited in 1997 but has recently begun.
