NATO says Russia to have 30,000 troops on drills in Belarus, north of Ukraine

KYIV/BRUSSELS, Feb 3 (Reuters) – NATO said Russia had stepped up deployments to Ukraine’s northern neighbour Belarus in recent days and was expected to have 30,000 troops there for joint military exercises this month.

The Russia-Belarus exercises, running until Feb. 20, have provided Moscow with cover to further increase forces near Ukraine at a time when the United States and Britain have warned that Moscow may be gearing up for war.

Ukraine’s defence minister said Russia had currently massed a total of 115,000 troops near Ukraine’s borders.

Russia denies planning to invade Ukraine and has described the Allied Resolve exercises with Belarus as a rehearsal in repelling external aggression. It has not disclosed the size of its forces there but says they will withdraw after the drills.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said: “Over the last days, we have seen a significant movement of Russian military forces into Belarus.

“This is the biggest Russian deployment there since the Cold War, with an expected 30,000 combat troops” as well as Spetsnaz special operations forces, SU-35 fighter jets, S-400 air defence systems and nuclear-capable Iskander missiles, he said.

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu arrived in Belarus on Thursday to inspect Russian and Belarusian troops and was due to meet Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, Interfax news agency said.

The United States and NATO have rejected Russian demands to bar Ukraine from joining NATO and withdraw allied forces and weapons systems from eastern Europe, while expressing a willingness to talk about arms control and confidence-building measures.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday the West had ignored Russia’s main concerns and accused the United States of trying to lure it into war, but he said Russia was still interested in dialogue.

On Thursday the Kremlin again accused Washington of inflaming tensions after the United States said it would send nearly 3,000 extra troops to Poland and Romania. The Pentagon said the aim was to send a “strong signal” to Putin and the world that “NATO matters to the United States and it matters to our allies”.

By NC ScoutPublished On: February 5, 2022Categories: AP Staff, News and Links2 Comments

About the Author: NC Scout

NC Scout is the nom de guerre of a former Infantry Scout and Sergeant in one of the Army’s best Reconnaissance Units. He has combat tours in both Iraq and Afghanistan. He teaches a series of courses focusing on small unit skills rarely if ever taught anywhere else in the prepping and survival field, including his RTO Course which focuses on small unit communications. In his free time he is an avid hunter, bushcrafter, writer, long range shooter, prepper, amateur radio operator and Libertarian activist. He can be contacted at [email protected] or via his blog at brushbeater.wordpress.com .

2 Comments

Johnny Paratrooper February 5, 2022 at 11:42

Didn’t even know that this was a thing during out last SOL podcast. Seems to have been released the day of or the days before.

Regardless, this is pretty heavy stuff.
boss21 February 5, 2022 at 14:07

Putin needs a distraction as much as Xiden. The Vax/ QR code shitshow is going no better in Russia than anywhere else. https://edwardslavsquat.substack.com/p/qr-blowback-displeased-russians-hang The UNZ, Saker etc Putin fanboys are saying nothing about this . They ascribed ‘color revolution’ to Kazakhstan straight away without question when it was the Vax/QR code that triggered it. Then the ‘Russian’ Central Bank called for a ban on BTC mining.and the next day Duma MPs called for mining to expand. Then Kazakhstan conveniently suffered a massive power outage. Kazakhstan is no 2 for BTC mining in the world after USA. Russia bounces between 3 and 4. There is lot of shit going on all at the same time.

Putin won’t get truck convoys but he might get soccer hooligans over the covid bs. He is also tied to Davos at least as much as Turdeau. BTW the head of Sberbank , Herman Gref (not Russian) is also a trustee of the WEF. Sberbank is the driving force behind the QR/CBDC in Russia. People power is the only way out of this abomination.