More U.S. fighter planes, troops in Lithuania during Belarus-Russia war game - Grybauskaite


The United States will double the number of air-policing jet fighters in Lithuania during the joint Russian-Belarusian war game Zapad-2017, president Dalia Grybauskaite says.

According to her, during the neighbours’ military exercise there will also be more American troops and military equipment in the country.

“The fact that there will be more army, the air police mission will be doubled, there will be more US troops, equipment and ships, shows the special attention to our region,” the Lithuanian president said in an interview on Monday.

Earlier, 4 battle planes were involved in the NATO air policing mission in Lithuania. But this time Americans will deploy 8 fighters in Šiauliai, in the north of the country.

The Zapad (West-2017) war game is scheduled for September, 14-20. It will be the final stage of the joint training of the armed forces of the two countries this year.

Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite and a number of European politicians believe that the ‘West-2017’ demonstrates the preparation of Belarus and Russia to the war with the West. In mid April, Oleksandr Turchynov, Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine, stressed that the joint military exercise might become the preparation for an assault against Ukraine in September.

 belsat.eu, following Delfi.lt

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