Russia says “mercenary cutthroats” in Ukraine want to overthrow Belarus government

March 29, BPN. NATO continues to build up strike forces on the borders of Belarus, in Poland and the Baltics, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin has told RTVI in an interview.

Russia also observes “clearly unfriendly military activity” in Ukraine’s regions bordering Belarus, he said.

The senior diplomat continued by saying that statements by “Belarusian nationalist formations fighting as part of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in Donbas” had become more militant in recent months.

“The leaders and commanders of these ‘mercenary cutthroats’ openly say that they plan to use their combat experience to forcibly overthrow the current Belarusian leadership in the future,” he said.

There is a possibility that these “subversive groups” will be sent to Belarus, he added.

Galuzin called the Russian-Belarusian group of troops in Belarus a “powerful deterrent for Ukrainian units, who are forced to keep substantial reserves in this area instead of deploying them in the southeast.”

He blamed a possible escalation on the Belarusian-Ukrainian border exclusively on the “regime” in Kyiv and its “western handlers.”

The diplomat pledged that Russians would stand “shoulder to shoulder with their brothers” to “protect the Union’s sovereignty and security.”