A military exercise is raising concerns of a Russian attack on Ukraine alongside Belarusian troops. But experts suspect a diversionary ploy.
Vienna/Minsk. The ruler was wearing a wool cap and uniform when he had a picture of the situation: less than two weeks ago, Russian soldiers received a high-ranking visit in a military training area – but not from Vladimir Putin, but from Alexander Lukashenko, the autocrat in Belarus. The training ground was located not somewhere in the Russian steppe, but in western Belarus, near the city of Baranavichy. Because Russian soldiers belong to a task force that Minsk and Moscow have been building since 2022. It is intended to protect the borders of the common union state, which was founded in the Yeltsin era, but existed mainly on paper for a long time.
A joint air force exercise also began on Monday in airspace over Belarus. Some observers recalled that the invasion of Ukraine began a year ago with maneuvers in Belarus, which then transitioned seamlessly into an attack towards Kyiv – even if the exercises can hardly be compared. In any case, the focus of military activity in the north is on the 1,086-kilometer border between Ukraine and Belarus.