Belarusian Defense Ministry shows Russian forces’ arrival
Russian soldiers arrive in Belarus (Photo:Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Belarus via Telegram)
Photos of Russian troops arriving on Belarusian territory have been posted by the Belarusian Ministry of Defense on Oct. 23 on Telegram.
"Russian servicemen, who are part of a regional grouping of forces, are arriving in the Republic of Belarus," the message reads.
Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko, announced on Oct. 10 that Minsk and Moscow had agreed upon this ‘regional deployment’, consisting of both Belarusian and Russian soldiers. Accordingly, he instructed the Belarusian military to receive and deploy "more than one thousand" Russian soldiers on the territory of Belarus.
The arrival of "first echelons" of Russian servicemen was reported by the Ministry of Defense of Belarus on Oct. 15.
The Ministry of Defense on the following day announced that a total of nine thousand Russian troops would be transferred to the country – far greater than the thousand-plus that Lukashenko had initially requested.
According to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as of Oct. 13, up to a thousand Russian soldiers, as well as Russian military equipment were already stationed in Belarus.
The reason for deployment was given by the dictator as alleged "aggression on the western borders of the Union State of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus”. What this refers to is unclear, as no such threat exists. Lukashenko warned that the joint Russian-Belarusian force would be involved "if the threat level reaches the current level, as it is now,” though against whom, and what the threat level represents is unknown. None of Belarus’ neighbors have deployed troops to the Belarusian border, while Ukrainian maintains only defensive garrisons to guard against a possible Russian push from the north.
Similar accusations of "threats" brought by Belarus against Ukraine have been heard regularly since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which began on Feb. 24, including from the side of the Belarusian-Ukrainian border.
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