Belarus’ Defence ministry says its large-scale crossborder military drills with Russia will hold next month, a move Ukraine has described as a threat to its own security and that of NATO.
In a statement the ministry said the “West-2021” drills will involve thousands of servicemen, including those from Moscow-led Defence bloc member Kazakhstan, as well as tanks, artillery and aircraft,.
Military exercises will be held at training grounds in both Russia and Belarus and will be based on a scenario where “international tensions are escalated to a level that may destabilise the situation in the region and provoke aggression against the Union State (of Russia and Belarus).
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s deputy chief of staff, Roman Mashovets, said in April the planned drills were “a threat to Euro-Atlantic security” and “aggressive in nature”.
But Belarus’ defence ministry said, in turn, that the exercise carried no threat, “neither for the European community as a whole not for any neighbouring countries”.
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