The first batch of Russian forces to take part in the “joint grouping” announced by President Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko have arrived, the defence ministry in Minsk said.
According to the Defence Ministry’s international military cooperation department, Valery Revenko, just under 9,000 troops have been deployed to protect the Belarusian border as part of a “regional grouping” of forces, reports Reuters news agency.
The move comes a week after Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who is a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, said that his troops would be deployed alongside Russian forces near the Ukrainian border as part of a “joint grouping”, claiming that Kyiv was planning to attack his country.
He had accused Poland, Lithuania and Ukraine of training Belarusian radicals “to carry out sabotage, terrorist attacks and to organise a military mutiny in the country”.
Taking to Twitter, the head of the Defence Ministry’s international military cooperation department, Valery Revenko, said, “The first troop trains with Russian servicemen who are part of the (regional grouping) began to arrive in Belarus.”
He said “the relocation will take several days,” and involve “a little less than 9,000 people.”
He has not provided further information on the deployment but added that they will brief about more developments in the upcoming days.
Earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky raked up the issue at a G7 meeting on Tuesday, where he accused Russia of “trying to directly draw Belarus into this war”.
He called for an international observers mission to be placed on the Ukraine-Belarus border.
But Belarus clarified that the contingent deployment was a “purely defensive” move.
(With inputs from agencies)
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