A Russian Defense Ministry delegation, led by the new Deputy Commander of Russian forces in Ukraine, General and Army Commander Oleg Saliukov, inspected the Russian contingent stationed in neighboring Belarus on Thursday.
“They inspected military units and formations of the Russian side integrated into the regional grouping of forces that are installed in the training grounds of the Armed Forces of Belarus,” the Belarusian Defense Ministry said on its Telegram channel.
Saliukov was appointed deputy commander of the Russian military forces fighting in Ukraine on Wednesday, along with General Sergei Surovikin, head of the Russian Air Force, and Alexei Kim, deputy chief of staff of the Armed Forces.
All three are under the command of Valeri Gerasimov, the current Chief of Staff of the Russian Armed Forces.
According to the Belarusian command, during the inspection Saliukov controlled the quality of the military preparation courses and praised the willingness of the military to carry out missions “with the aim of ensuring the military security of the State Union” of Russia and Belarus.
The senior military commander was informed of the reports prepared by the heads of the Russian military units and “reviewed the conditions for installing troops, talked with the military and personally witnessed the high level of readiness of the fighters.”
“Russian soldiers who are part of the regional grouping of forces continue the intensive course of military preparation at the Ranges of the Armed Forces of Belarus. The exercises are held day and night,” the Belarusian Defense Ministry added.
Also this Thursday, the arrival of new Russian military contingents in Belarus was confirmed, in addition to various weapons and equipment.
Recently, the Secretary of the Security Council of Belarus, Alexandr Volfovich, assured that the regional military group has “exclusively defensive objectives and its priority mission is to defend the western borders of the Russia-Belarus State Union.”
He also recalled that the sending of this group to Belarusian territory was agreed in 2021 by the presidents of Belarus, Alexandr Lukashenko, and Russia, Vladimir Putin.
“The regional grouping of troops is one of the elements of strategic containment. It is an element that must surely calm the feverish minds of the West regarding its aggressive policy towards the State Union, ”he stressed.
According to the Belarusian Ministry of Defense, the Russian component of the military group is made up of at least 9,000 soldiers, 170 tanks, 200 armored vehicles and up to 100 artillery pieces of caliber greater than 100 mm.
“If you want peace, prepare for war. This was not invented by you or me,” Lukashenko recently said, who did not rule out an aggression against his country, accused of complicity with Russia by Ukraine and its neighbors Poland and Lithuania.
For the moment, the Ukrainian authorities have ruled out an attack from Belarusian territory, as happened at the start of the Russian military campaign in Ukraine, ordered by Putin on February 24, 2022.
The military offensive has so far caused the flight of more than 14 million people -6.5 million internally displaced persons and more than 7.9 million to European countries-, according to the most recent data from the UN, which catalogs this crisis of refugees as the worst in history. Europe since World War II (1939-1945).
Right now, 17.7 million Ukrainians need humanitarian aid and 9.3 million need food aid and shelter.
The Russian invasion – justified by Russian President Vladimir Putin as the need to “denazify” and demilitarize Ukraine for Russia’s security – was condemned by the wider international community, which has responded by sending arms to Ukraine and imposing them on Russia in political and economic sanctions.
The UN presented as confirmed since the beginning of the war 6,952 dead civilians and 11,144 wounded, stressing that these figures are far below the real ones.
Source: TSF
