Russian troops in Belarus for exercises to stay until at least Feb. 20

Russian troops that have deployed to Belarus for joint military exercises near the Ukrainian border will be in the country at least through Feb. 20, the Russian Defense Ministry announced Wednesday.

The deployment and exercises have only exacerbated U.S. and NATO fears that Moscow is putting in place forces on three sides of neighboring Ukraine in preparation for military action against the former Soviet republic.

The Kremlin has assembled more than 100,000 troops and heavy weaponry near Ukraine on Russian soil as it demands NATO rule out future membership for Kyiv and pull back alliance forces that have been building up across Eastern Europe.

The Russian Defense Ministry outlined in a statement Wednesday a two-stage military exercise for participating Belarusian and Russian forces.

Starting Feb. 9, the two militaries will “practice protecting and defending vital state and military facilities and protecting the state border in the airspace and checking the preparedness and capability of air defense quick reaction alert forces for accomplishing the tasks of shielding vital facilities,” the statement said.

After that, a series of “Union Resolve 2022” joint drills will run through Feb. 20, when troops “will practice fighting and repelling external aggression, countering terrorism and protecting the interests” of the Belarus-Russia union state.

The Kremlin has insisted on its right to deploy its troops anywhere inside Russian territory or on the territory of willing allies. The new joint exercises will take place at five training grounds and four airfields in western Belarus, near the borders with Ukraine and NATO members Poland and Lithuania.

But the decision to hold the exercises at such a fraught time is particularly concerning to NATO, military strategists say.

“Basing troops in Belarus provides Russia with one particularly important logistical advantage,” Brian Whitmore, a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, wrote last month as preparations for the exercises had begun.

“It gives Moscow the ability to reach Kyiv, which is just [54 miles] from the Belarusian border, without crossing the Dnipro River. Military analysts fear that if the Kremlin launches simultaneous offensives from the north, south, and east, such a multi-pronged attack could severely stretch Ukraine’s defenses.”