The first Russian soldiers of the new joint military force with Belarus, announced this week and sparked fears about a new country involved in the war in Ukraine, they arrived in the territory this Saturdayas reported by the Belarusian authorities.
“The first trains with Russian soldiers that make up the regional military force arrived in Belarus,” the Belarusian Defense Ministry said in a statement quoted by the AFP news agency, without specifying the number of soldiers deployed by Russia for this purpose.
The portfolio published images showing military trains and trucks, as well as Russian soldiers being greeted by women dressed in traditional costumes with bread and salt in their hands, a tradition of Slavic hospitality.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko accused Poland, Lithuania and Ukraine last Monday of preparing “terrorist” attacks. and an “uprising” in Belarus, and announced the deployment of this regional military force.
The country, an unconditional ally of the Kremlin, assures that this force is only defensive and seeks to guarantee the security of its border, at a time when Minsk accuses kyiv of preparing an offensive, which raises fears of its direct intervention in the conflict in Ukraine. .
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia last Tuesday of wanting to “drag Belarus into the war” and demanded before the G7 an international observation mission on the border between his country and his neighbor to the north.
Belarus has already lent its territory to the Russian army for the start of its offensive in February, although Belarusian forces have so far not participated in the fighting in Ukraine.
