(Kiev) Belarus announced on Sunday the continuation of joint military exercises with Russia on its territory, on the borders of Ukraine, where Westerners fear a major attack from Moscow.
Posted at 8:00 a.m.
The announcement comes shortly before a phone call between French President Emmanuel Macron and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, which the Élysée Palace described as “the last possible and necessary efforts to avoid a major conflict in Ukraine” after their meeting on February 7.
Moscow had previously announced that the approximately 30,000 Russian soldiers, according to the count of the United States, being in Belarus for military exercises since February 10 would withdraw at the end of these, this Sunday.
Instead of a withdrawal, the Belarusian Defense Ministry announced that Minsk and Moscow had decided to “continue the inspection of forces” following the outbreak of violence in eastern Ukraine, where forces of Kyiv are fighting pro-Russian separatists backed by Russia.
Russia is already accused by the West, despite several announcements of military withdrawal, of having massed 150,000 soldiers on the borders of Ukraine, in Russia and in Belarus, with a view to an invasion that the United States and other countries present as imminent.
Moscow defends itself from any invasion project but demands guarantees for its security, including the promise that Ukraine will never join NATO and the end of the reinforcement of Alliance forces on its borders, as many demands as Westerners rejected.
This crisis has caused an escalation of tensions such as Europe has not known since the Cold War.
“Shield of Europe”
Following in the footsteps of the United States and NATO, which said they feared a “large-scale attack”, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson assured Sunday that Russia was preparing “what could be the biggest war in Europe since 1945”.
According to him, a Russian invasion of Ukraine would not only take place from the east, but also from the north, via Belarus, to “encircle Kiev”.
“All signs indicate that Russia is planning a full attack,” said Jens Stoltenberg, the secretary general of NATO, which Kiev wants to join, on Saturday.
US President Joe Biden convened the National Security Council for a crisis meeting on Sunday evening. A sign that the diplomatic channel remains open, its Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the head of Russian diplomacy Sergei Lavrov are to meet on February 24.
Kiev and the West fear that Russia, which already annexed Crimea in 2014, is looking for a casus belli to attack Ukraine and that the recent resumption of intense fighting between the Ukrainian army and pro-Russian separatists in the East could be this pretext.
Sunday’s Macron-Putin appeal comes amid heavy fire on the frontline in eastern Ukraine, with OSCE monitors reporting more than 1,500 ceasefire violations between Thursday and Friday, a record this year .
In this context of extreme volatility, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday urged Westerners to end their policy of “appeasement” vis-à-vis Moscow and to increase their military aid to Kiev, “shield of Europe”.
On the same day, Russia conducted under the supervision of Vladimir Putin firing exercises of missiles capable of carrying nuclear charges.
Sustained fire on the forehead
“We cannot forever offer an olive branch as Russia carries out missile tests and continues to amass troops” on the Ukrainian border, European Council President Charles Michel reacted on Sunday.
PHOTO EVGENIY MALOLETKA, ASSOCIATED PRESS
A Ukrainian soldier on the battle line separating the country from the territory controlled by the Russians.
On the front, in eastern Ukraine, the fighting redoubled in intensity. Kiev and the separatists accuse each other of inflaming this conflict which has claimed more than 14,000 lives since 2014.
Reinforcing concern, pro-Russian separatists announced Saturday a “general mobilization” of men able to fight, after ordering the evacuation of civilians to neighboring Russia, which said on Sunday it had taken in more than 40,000.
On the night of Saturday to Sunday, they again accused the Ukrainian army of dozens of ceasefire-violating mortar and howitzer fire and ensure that Ukraine is preparing an attack, which Kiev denies.
The militias of the separatist “republic” of Lugansk claimed to have repelled an attack by Ukrainian soldiers on Sunday at dawn, during which, according to this source, two civilians were killed. An announcement described as “absolute disinformation” by Kiev.