{"id":11350,"date":"2022-02-16T16:11:50","date_gmt":"2022-02-16T13:11:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/api.pozirk.online\/longreads\/russia-may-draw-belarus-into-its-war\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T20:29:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T20:29:13","slug":"russia-may-draw-belarus-into-its-war","status":"publish","type":"longreads","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11350\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia may draw Belarus into its war"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n <span>By Valieryj Karbalievi\u010d<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n <b>Allied Resolve 2022, Belarusian-Russian large-scale military maneuvers, began in Belarus on September 10 amid international concern about Russian military build-up near Ukraine. <\/b>\n<\/p>\n<p> <b> <\/b><\/p>\n<h2> <span>Biggest ever exercises<\/span> <\/h2>\n<p>\n\t Aliaksandr Luka\u0161enka and Vladimir Putin announced their decision on December 29 to hold unscheduled exercises in Belarus in February, months after major maneuvers, Zapad 2021.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Russian troops and equipment started to arrive in Belarus from Far East even before officials announced the dates of drills and other details. Observers feared that the exercises might be just a smoke screen for Russia\u2019s invasion in Ukraine or for the annexation of Belarus to Russia.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t The 10-day drills involve state-of-the art Russian equipment, including Iskander M missiles, Ka-52 helicopter gunships and Sukhoi fighter jets, and up to 30,000 Russian troops, according NATO estimates. Minsk and Moscow would not specify any numbers but said that personnel involved did not exceed the limits set by OSCE Vienna Document 2011. Russian troops are based close to the Ukrainian border.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t The maneuvers are taking place amid fears that Russia is preparing to invade Ukraine if it does not withdraw its application to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.\n<\/p>\n<h2> <span>Luka\u0161enka in lockstep with Kremlin<\/span> <\/h2>\n<p>\n\t Putin and Luka\u0161enka have put on a show of force to intimidate the West and Ukraine. The Belarusian leader relies on the Kremlin\u2019s support for his political survival. Does not only he back the Kremlin\u2019s anti-Western campaigns, but he often tries to seize the initiative from Putin in harassing the West. Last year, he was accused of having engineered a migrant crisis on Belarus\u2019 border with EU countries.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t In return for his servitude, Russia has provided economic aid and is likely to help Minsk mitigate the effect of Western sanctions. Luka\u0161enka is keen to maintain permanent tensions with neighbors to make sure that his security apparatus and supporters stay vigilant. He fears that otherwise his regime may not survive the widespread public discontent.\n<\/p>\n<h2> <b><span>Belarus seen as Russian outpost by West<\/span><\/b> <\/h2>\n<p>\n\t Many Belarusians fear that Russian troops may stay in their country after the exercise as Moscow seeks to expand its military reach.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Moscow and Minsk plan to conduct more than 20 joint military events this year, the Russian defense minister said during his visit to Minsk last week. Definitely, Russia would like to increase its military presence and make it permanent. The tight training schedule means that some troops will return to Russia and new troops will arrive.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t The Russian military presence has put a strain on Belarus\u2019 sovereignty and somewhat limited Luka\u0161enka\u2019s authority as Belarus\u2019 commander in chief.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Foreign observers see Belarus as Russia\u2019s puppet. Western leaders seem to prefer to discuss Belarus\u2019 future with Moscow, not with Minsk.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Regardless of what plans Putin has for Ukraine, Luka\u0161enka does not want a war to break out between Russia and Ukraine. Nevertheless, he is interested in lasting tensions, which help him remain at the center of activity.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Russia\u2019s military gambles may draw Belarus in a war against Luka\u0161enka\u2019s will. That would upset most Belarusians who wish their country stay out of trouble.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Valieryj Karbalievi\u010d Allied Resolve 2022, Belarusian-Russian large-scale military maneuvers, began in Belarus on September 10 amid international concern about Russian military build-up near Ukraine. Biggest ever exercises Aliaksandr Luka\u0161enka and Vladimir Putin announced their decision on December 29 to hold unscheduled exercises in Belarus in February, months after major maneuvers, Zapad 2021. Russian troops [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":0,"template":"","rubric":[24],"class_list":["post-11350","longreads","type-longreads","status-publish","hentry","rubric-theviewer"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Russia may draw Belarus into its war | Pozirk<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"By Valieryj Karbalievi\u010d Allied Resolve 2022, Belarusian-Russian large-scale military maneuvers, began in Belarus on September 10 amid international\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11350\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Russia may draw Belarus into its war | 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