As of: March 15, 2024, 4:21 p.m
By: Philipp Bräuner
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The Belarusian army has moved tanks to the border of a NATO country.
There is also talk of calling up reservists.
Minsk - The Belarus tanks are rolling - a transport train is said to have unloaded several battle tanks near the Lithuanian border.
This is reported by various opposition media, also citing the Belarusian Defense Ministry.
The transfer is apparently part of a larger operation by the armed forces under dictator Alexander Lukashenko.
Tanks on the NATO border: Putin ally Lukashenko mobilizes armed forces
According to a report on the website of the Association of Railway Workers of Belarus, an extra-parliamentary opposition group, a transport train carrying a variety of military equipment left northeastern Belarus on Wednesday, March 13.
According to the report, the destination was the city of Ashmyany in the northwest.
From there it's just under twenty minutes by car to the Lithuanian border and just over an hour to the capital Vilnius.
The Belarusian army has deployed forces near the Lithuanian border for a “combat readiness review.”
(Archive image) © Tatyana Zenkovich/dpa
A report by the
Belarusian Hajun Project
news portal by well-known opposition figure Anton Motolko said that the train carried four cars with Belarusian soldiers and 42 vehicles with equipment, including nine T-72B tanks and BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicles.
The Belarusian Defense Ministry confirmed this to the Hajun Project.
Putin ally moves tanks to NATO border to inspect army
The “review of the combat readiness of the armed forces” has been officially underway in Belarus since Monday.
On its Telegram channel, the Belarusian Defense Ministry writes that this inspection is “comprehensive” and will be “expanded”.
This also includes, among other things, “exercises with live ammunition”.
In addition, a call-up of reservists is planned, it says.
It is obvious that the large deployment in Belarus must also be seen as a response to the NATO series of maneuvers “Steadfast Defender”.
As Putin's closest ally, autocrat Lukashenko regularly joins the Atlantic Alliance in the same vein as the Russian president.
In the run-up to the elections in Belarus, he recently raised the rumor of a NATO conspiracy in Poland.
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pkb
)