Russia and Belarus are conducting an extra week of joint army drills, the Belarusian Protection Ministry stated on Tuesday, the newest signal of cooperation between the neighboring allies amid Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
“In the course of the week, army representatives from the 2 nations will apply joint planning of using troops based mostly on the prior expertise of armed conflicts lately,” the ministry stated in a press release.
The ministry stated the purpose of the coaching is to enhance the compatibility of the 2 militaries and is a part of preparation for the joint Union Protect 2023 workouts the 2 nations will maintain in Russia in September.
The announcement of the brand new drills comes as Russian and Belarussian aviation fight models proceed to conduct coaching missions throughout joint flight and tactical workouts of the air forces of the 2 nations.
The workouts are being held on the Ruzhansky coaching grounds in Belarus about 150 kilometers (93 miles) north of the Ukrainian border.
In the meantime, Russian President Vladimir Putin has backed a plan to arrange joint army coaching facilities with Belarus, in line with Agence France-Presse.
In a decree printed Tuesday, Putin tasked the protection and international ministers to conduct talks with Belarus and signal an settlement to determine the amenities, AFP reported.
The doc didn’t specify the place they might be based mostly.
Some context: An announcement by Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko in October that his nation and Russia would kind a joint regional power and perform workouts set off alarm bells in Kyiv.
The final time Belarus and Russia forces held joint workouts, in February final yr, lots of these Russian forces went on to cross the Ukrainian border of their ill-fated drive in direction of the capital.
However Western officers talking to media on background this week have expressed doubt that Russia might launch an offensive from Belarus within the coming months.
The Russian troops’ presence would, nevertheless, immediate Ukraine into stationing its troops in that route to “offset that potential threat,” the officers stated, regardless that they pressured it’s “massively unlikely” that Belarus “will likely be an axis of advance within the subsequent a number of months.”
