Russia, Belarus hold joint drills amid West tensions

Russian parachutists walk before Ilyushin Il 76 transport planes to take part in the military exercises Zapad 2021, organized by the armed forces of Russia and Belarus at an airport in Kaliningrad Region, Russia, September 13, 2021. REUTERS Vitaly Nevar File Photo

MOSCOW, Jan 17 Reuters - Russian military forces and hardware arrived in ex-Soviet Belarus for joint drills starting in February, Minsk said on Monday, amid rising tensions between East and West over Ukraine.

The Allied Resolve exercises will be held near Belarus' western rim, the borders of NATO members Poland and Lithuania, and its southern flank with Ukraine, Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko said.

Set an exact date and let us know, so we aren't blamed for massing troops here out of the blue, as if we are preparing to go to war, he told top military officials.

A military buildup near Ukraine's borders and a barrage of threats from Russia have sparked Western fears that Russia is planning to invade. Moscow denies any such plan but has used the standoff to campaign for security guarantees from the West, including a halt to NATO expansion and a formal veto on Ukraine, a former Soviet republic, ever joining the military alliance.

The Belarusian leader, a pariah in the West since the EU imposed a crackdown in 2020 and last year's migrant crisis, said drills were needed as Ukraine had built up troops near Belarus.

He said Poland and the Baltics had more than 30,000 soldiers near Belarus' borders.

Lukashenko has led the former Soviet republic that Moscow sees as a buffer state to the West since 1994 and strengthened ties with Moscow during mass protests in 2020 as the West imposed sanctions.

He said these should be normal exercises to work out a plan for confronting these forces: the West, the Baltics and Poland, and the South Ukraine.

Russia was right to be worried because of reports that Estonia was prepared to host up to 5,000 NATO troops, according to the Kremlin.

It's exactly things like that that proves we have grounds to be concerned and it proves that we're not the reason for escalating tensions, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

He was asked to comment on a conference call after a senior Russian official declined to rule out or confirm whether Russia could deploy missiles in Venezuela or Cuba if the West refused to deliver Moscow's security guarantees.

Let's not forget that for Latin America -- we're talking about sovereign states there. Russia is thinking how to ensure its own security in the context of the current situation. He said that we are reviewing different scenarios.

Russia's Western Military District said it was holding command-staff training exercises in five regions, involving 800 servicemen and more than 300 pieces of hardware, according to the Interfax news agency.