Russian Ambassador to Minsk, Boris Gryzlov, in his first interview after being appointed to a new position, told about the protection of the borders of the Union State. According to him, NATO’s military buildup by Belarusian borders does not go unnoticed.
The Ambassador recalled that in November 2021, the updated Military Doctrine of the Union State was approved (before that, a document from 2001 was in force). The new edition takes into account all geopolitical and strategic factors of the present day and looks into “various military threats, including new ones: colour revolutions, instigation of internal turmoil with the use of private military companies, digital technologies and extremist elements.”
“We see that the buildup of NATO personnel and military equipment literally at our doorstep continues without cease. […] additional forces, including heavy weaponry, were deployed near the Belarusian border. Of course, it won’t go unnoticed. Moreover, we approach the issues of border protection carefully,” the Ambassador noted.
He said that joint Russian-Belarusian patrolling of the air borders of the Union State is regularly organized, in which long-range Tu-22M3 bombers, Su-30 CM multi-purpose fighters and other equipment is used.
Gryzlov pointed out that Western countries launch active propaganda mentioning alleged emerging threats following basically any news about the joint exercises of the armed forces of Russia and Belarus. The Ambassador noted that the joint exercises with Russia, which are due to begin in February this year and are called “Allied Determination 2022” alerted the West.
“Certainly, in the news about any of our drills, the Western propaganda machine becomes active using all sorts of false information about pseudo-threats. This has already happened many times, however, the authors of these fake news items have always been put to shame: Russian and Belarusian servicemen clearly and consistently demonstrated their training and aced their drills after which they returned to their permanent duty stations,” the Ambassador noted.
However, such explanations do not satisfy neither West nor Ukraine, which are constantly excuse their own military buildups close to the Russian border, as well as their frequent so-called “exercise” in the immediate vicinity to Russia by preparations to repel the alleged “Russian threat”. So, Ukraine followed the Western example and started to build helicopter pads on the border with Belarus “in case of escalation of tension between the countries.”
According to the Border Service of Ukraine, the reason for such a step by the Ukrainian authorities was the “provoked migration crisis” on the border between the EU countries and Belarus, Gazeta reports.
As Gryzlov explained, the exercises like are going to start soon are not something out of the ordinary, but only a regular check of military readiness. Thus, in September 2021, Russia and Belarus held joint exercises Zapad 2021 (“West 2021”), and, as Gryzlov said, when the “Allied Determination 2022” ends, preparations for the new exercises “Union Shield 2023” will begin, which in turn will take place on the territory of Russia.
Ru-Main, 19.01.2022
Source: TASS
