MINSK, July 5. /TASS/. NATO’s strategic aircraft run drills simulating cruise missile attacks on Moscow and St. Petersburg from eastern European airspace nearly every month, Colonel Andrey Bogodel, deputy head of the General Staff department at the Belarusian Military Academy, said.
"Reconnaissance aircraft conduct flights along our border on a regular basis. Literally not a month goes by without B-52 strategic bombers turning up to conduct drills simulating the launch of cruise missiles toward St. Petersburg, Moscow and other targets. It cannot but give us grounds for serious concern," he said in an interview for the Belarus Segodnya (Belarus Today) publishing house’s YouTube channel.
According to Bogodel, "NATO is starting to seriously consider the actual possibility of an armed conflict, primarily with countries on its eastern flank." "It's about the Union State consisting of the Republic of Belarus and the Russian Federation," the colonel explained.
"I don’t think that there is an imminent threat of war at the moment, but such preparations are indeed underway," he pointed out, noting that 16,000 to 30,000 NATO troops were already stationed in Poland and the Baltic states and the bloc has plans to expand NATO troop strength in the region to 300,000.
According to the senior Belarusian military official, NATO’s heightened activity along the Union State’s border is part of the bloc’s campaign of pressure tactics. The colonel noted that in response to NATO’s actions, Minsk is taking appropriate measures to show its determination to counter any potential aggression.