Russia, Belarus acting as single whole in western direction – Lukashenka about West-2017 war game
The joint Belarusian-Russian war game West-2017 is not aimed at invading other countries’ territories, president Alyaksandr Lukashenka said at Thursday’s meeting with the secretaries of the security councils of the CSTO member states.
According to him, the Belarusian and Russian armies are acting as a ‘single whole’ in the western direction.
“We do not conceal the fact from NATO or others. But since such a unit exists, it is clear that there should be military exercises. And we stage them. At the same time, is not aimed at invading other countries’ territories. We have enough territories of our own. We have no intention to wage war with anyone. But when shaping our policy we take into account the lessons of the past. We do not threaten anyone, we are not going to attack anyone. But we train our army so that it could be ready to repel any assault and inflict heavy damage to a potential enemy,” he stressed.
“The curious thing is that they reproach us for something that is by far not as serious as what they themselves engage in. We do not form or deploy any new military units of foreign countries. But, we witness the active deployment of military units and troops, including foreign ones, near our borders,” state-run news agency BelTA quotes Lukashenka as saying.
Expressing concern over ‘their’ deploying cutting-edge aerial devices, the Belarusian leader wondered against whom such huge combat drones were directed against and reiterated his readiness to hold the military exercise.
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The 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
