Belarus has introduced that its joint army workouts with Russia, which had been because of finish on Sunday, will now proceed due to the aggravated tensions in neighbouring Ukraine.
It implies that Russian forces will stay in Belarus amid heightened tensions with the West, regardless of Moscow's promise that its forces would depart the nation after the drills which started on February 10.
The presence of a giant contingent of Russian troops in Belarus, which borders Ukraine to the north, has raised concern that they may very well be used to brush down on the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.
Belarusian chief Alexander Lukashenko and Russia's Vladimir Putin determined "to proceed testing the response forces of the union state", Defence Minister Viktor Khrenin mentioned on Sunday.
Khrenin cited "the rise in army exercise close to the exterior borders of the union state and the aggravation of the state of affairs in Donbas" — the area of jap Ukraine managed by pro-Russia separatists.
In response to Minsk, the goal of the workouts stays "to guarantee an satisfactory response and a de-escalation of army preparations led by ill-intentioned folks close to the borders".
The announcement got here shortly earlier than French President Emmanuel Macron started a cellphone name with Putin, in what's seen as a last-minute diplomatic effort to attempt to keep away from a Russian invasion of Ukraine.
It got here the day after Lukashenko joined Putin on the Kremlin to look at Russian forces conduct nuclear drills.
The exiled Belarusian opposition chief Svetlana Tsikhanouskaya denounced the Russian troop extension as a menace to her nation's sovereignty.
"The presence of Russian troops on our territory violates our structure and worldwide regulation, and endangers the safety of every Belarusian citizen and the entire area," she mentioned in a press release, demanding the "rapid withdrawal" of Russian forces.
Tsikhanouskaya mentioned Belarus risked changing into swept into "one other nation's struggle and reworked into an aggressor", and blamed Lukashenko for having "paid for Kremlin help" together with her nation's sovereignty.
She referred to as for the matter to be raised on the UN Safety Council and for brand new sanctions in opposition to Minsk.
Regardless of a earlier assertion asserting a army retreat, Russia is accused of massing 150,000 troops alongside Ukraine's borders to plan an invasion of the nation. Washington has claimed that Moscow is in search of a pretext to take action, and that a spike in violence within the east may present one.
Russia and Belarus have tight cooperation beneath an alliance known as the Union State, which stops in need of the nations’ precise integration.
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