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Lukashenko worried about NATO activity near Belarus’ western borders

Not only armed forces, but advanced unmanned combat air vehicles as well are located there, Alexander Lukashenko said

MINSK, June 15. /TASS/. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said he was worried about the deployment of NATO’s military forces and unmanned combat air vehicles (UCAVs) on the country’s western borders, he said today during a meeting with the secretaries of the Security Councils of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) member countries.

"Not only armed forces, but advanced unmanned combat air vehicles as well are located there. When I saw the photo shoots of these drones… they are so huge, like real planes," Lukashenko said, noting that the West criticized the Russian and Belarusian joint military exercise dubbed "West-2017" that will be held in autumn.

As he put it, these are combat drones. "Against whom? And they say: relax, you don't have to carry out any military exercises. No, we shall carry out drills, because the state security should not be neglected by anyone. Neither Russia, nor Belarus, nor the CSTO will neglect it," Lukashenko said.

The president stressed that the Belarusian and Russian armies are operating as a single entity on the west. "We conceal it neither from NATO nor from anyone else. As long as this entity exists, it is clear that drills should be conducted. And we conduct them. However, our military exercises are not aimed at advancing to anybody’s territory," he said.

According to the Belarusian president, "we do not threaten anybody, we are not going to conduct any attacks or be at war with anyone, but we train our army so that it could respond to any threat and inflict unacceptable damage on anyone wishing to fight with us."

"The strangest thing is that we are blamed for the things that are far from what they are actually doing," Lukashenko noted. "We do not form or deploy any new military units near other foreign countries, but we see more and more military units and armies, including foreign ones, being deployed with overt zeal near our borders."