Russia starts military drills in Belarus as Nato watches

Bloomberg

Russia and Belarus began their largest joint military drills in years Thursday, watched closely by the US and Europe amid tensions over neighboring Ukraine.
Thousands of troops backed by tanks, fighter aircraft and advanced S-400 missile-defense systems are involved in the “Allied Resolve 2022” exercises in Belarus that run to February 20. They include drills near the border with Ukraine as well as close to Poland and Lithuania, both Nato members.
“Russia and Belarus are facing unprecedented threats, the nature and concentration of which is now, unfortunately, much greater and far more dangerous than it was before,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on a conference call Wednesday. While Russia conducts regular drills with Belarus, these exercises “may be on a larger scale than before” in response to pressure from Nato, he said.
Around 30,000 Russian troops may be in Belarus, making it “the largest military buildup there since the Cold War,” Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters. The alliance has moved to reinforce its eastern flank and remains vigilant because “we have seen Russia use military exercises before as a cover for
aggressive actions,” he said.
Russia has repeatedly denied it plans an attack on Ukraine after the US and its Nato allies warned a buildup of close to 130,000 Russian troops near the Ukrainian border may be preparation for an invasion as soon as this month, including via Belarus from the north. The Kremlin accuses the West of trying to undermine Russia’s security by drawing Ukraine closer to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. “They’ve announced that the exercises would last until February 20,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told France Inter on Thursday. “It will be a very significant test — we will see what happens after these exercises, if there is, or not, a process of de-escalation.”
Chief of the Russian General Staff Valery Gerasimov arrived in Belarus to check preparations for the exercises, the Belta news service reported Wednesday. The Defense Ministry in Moscow hasn’t said how many Russian troops are taking part, though it has said the drills don’t exceed limits under a 2011 agreement on confidence-building measures in Europe. Those specify that exercises involving at least 9,000 troops require notification and that foreign observers must be invited if it’s more than 13,000.
Russia is also sending six large landing ships into the Black Sea from the Mediterranean to take part in naval exercises, the Defense Ministry said in a statement. Ukraine’s military will hold its own drills beginning Thursday until Feb. 20 including with Turkish-made Bayraktar drones and anti-tank weapons provided by the
UK, Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin wants the US and Europe to exclude Ukraine from future membership of Nato as part of new security guarantees sought by Moscow, a demand they have rejected.