The United States orders the families of the Embassy staff to leave Belarus

With large-scale Russian military exercises about to begin in Belarus, the United States ordered family members of US government employees to leave, citing “an increase in military activities”. unusual and concerning Russia near the border with Ukraine”.

The decision comes just over a week after the State Department pulled the families of American diplomats out of Ukraine in response to a Russian military buildup on the border. In a statement is published Second, the State Department also warned US citizens planning to travel to Belarus that “the situation is unpredictable.”

Although Russia insists that its military exercises pose no threat to Ukraine, which shares a 665-mile border with Belarus. largely unprotected, the United States has warned that they could be used as an excuse to prepare for a possible attack. The Ukrainian capital Kyiv is a short drive from the southern border of Belarus and within range of the missile systems Russia deployed before the drills.

The Russian Defense Ministry said that Russia has deployed some of the most advanced and well-equipped forces to nine bases and airfields around Belarus. Ukrainian and Western officials say well-trained special operations units and paratroopers, powerful air defense systems and hundreds of aircraft have begun arriving at bases across the country. At least two battalions of Iskander-M missiles have been sent to Belarus, armed with missiles that can strike anywhere inside Ukraine, said Konrad Muzyka, a Russian military analyst, say on Twitter.

The exercises, titled Allied Resolve-2022, terrified not only Ukraine, but also NATO countries such as Poland and the Baltic states along Belarus’ western border.

On Tuesday, the Russian Defense Ministry published a video shows a newly deployed Russian army field camp on the border with Poland. The camp is equipped with hospitals, classrooms for soldiers and recreational facilities, a sign that the Russian military, as Western officials fear, may be deployed to the area for longer than time. the exercise, scheduled to end in February. 20

In a speech at the United Nations Security Council on Monday, the US Ambassador, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said that up to 30,000 Russian troops could be deployed for the exercises, adding to what she called The biggest mobilization in Europe in decades.