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Belarusian president points to rising tensions on Moscow-led bloc’s western border

"The US military presence in Eastern Europe is increasing, NATO countries’ coalition forces are building up their combat capabilities," Alexander Lukashenko pointed out

MINSK, September 16. /TASS/. Rising tensions along the western border of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) point to a dangerous trend, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said at a meeting of the CSTO Collective Security Council in Dushanbe on Thursday.

"Rising tensions on the CSTO’s western borders are a dangerous trend. The US military presence in Eastern Europe is increasing, NATO countries’ coalition forces are building up their combat capabilities," the BelTA news agency quoted Lukashenko as saying.

According to him, the North Atlantic Alliance held a series of military exercises in the Baltic states and Ukraine this year, while the number of drills has more than doubled in the past five years, with up to 90 major exercises taking place annually, and the number of troops involved grew from 60,000 to 110,000. "All of this creates conditions for military provocations and incidents along our borders. At the same time, our neighbors - the Baltic nations, Poland and Ukraine - are showing quite a nervous reaction to the routine Zapad-2021 Belarusian-Russian exercise," the Belarusian president said, emphasizing the defensive nature of the drills.

Lukashenko stressed that the exercise has been widely covered in the media and international observers are always invited to the drills. "However, our neighbors keep talking about imaginary threats to their security. The Ukrainian president went as far as to say that the seizure of Kiev, Odessa and Kharkov would be practiced during the Belarusian-Russian exercise," the Belarusian president noted.

He added that Ukraine itself regularly participated in NATO’s drills that are far from being defensive. "As for us, we hold drills at home, while the Americans traveled thousands of kilometers to conduct exercises in Ukraine, which are claimed to be defensive. Who are they defending themselves from?" Lukashenko wondered.

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CSTO Alexander Lukashenko

Military operation in Ukraine

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