Belarus announced on Tuesday January 18 the arrival of an undetermined number of Russian troops for “
combat readiness
” exercises in February, citing growing tensions with Westerners and Ukraine.
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"
The upcoming operational readiness and combat exercises are taking place due to the worsening of the politico-military situation in the world, the continuous increase of tensions in Europe, in particular on the western and southern borders of Belarus
", a the Belarusian Defense Ministry said in a statement, adding that these were “
impromptu
” Russian-Belarusian maneuvers.
