Belarus announces deployment of military task force with Russia: “NATO wants to attack us”

There Belarus announced the implementation of a joint military task force with Moscow troops which will be deployed on the border with Ukraine and Poland, in the same areas where the Russian offensive last February had already begun.

This was announced in a public speech this morning by Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, speaking of a military response to what he called an escalation of tensions in Ukraine.

“In connection with the escalation of tension on western borders of the state, we agreed with Russian President Vladimir Putin to deploy a military grouping of the Russian Federation and Belarus,” Lukashenko said, according to Russian state agency RIA Novosti.

According to reports by Belarusian state news agency Belta, the joint Belarusian and Russian military task force will be deployed on the western borders of the country of the former Soviet Union. In fact, the two countries have already sent a first military contingent in the area after starting to gather their forces two days after the explosion on the Russian bridge in Crimea.

The choice of Belarus, which could trigger a new military escalation in the region, was justified by Lukashenko with a alleged danger of aggression by Kiev assisted by NATO countries.

“According to our documents, the threat level has reached such a level that we should start using military groupings,” Lukashenko said.

“Yesterday, through unofficial channels, we have been warned that an attack on Belarus is being prepared from Ukrainian territory,” he said, adding that Ukraine intends to build a “Crimean bridge number 2”, in reference to what happened on Saturday at the Kerch bridge.

Lukashenko also told the Belta news agency that he had sent a message to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warning him not to “touch a single meter of Belarusian territory with dirty paws”.

According to Lukashenko, NATO leaders and some European countries are considering options to attack Belarus, even with a nuclear weapon.

The immediate response came from the EU who called the allegations in Kiev “ridiculous”. “We take note of the false accusations by the Lukashenko regime, they are baseless and ridiculous accusations. They are unacceptable. Ukraine is the victim here. The EU urges the Belarus regime to refrain from any involvement in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict,” said EU External Action Service spokesman Peter Stano, speaking of an “escalation”.