Russia and Belarus will continue their joint military exercises due to tensions with Ukraine, it was reported on Sunday.
The maneuvers were to conclude that same day. For them, Russia has amassed large numbers of forces in Belarus, which borders Ukraine. The Russian military presence has sparked fears that they will invade Ukraine.
Russia and Belarus have strengthened their alliance called the Unified State, little less than the total integration of the two countries.
Defense Minister Viktor Khrenin declared on Sunday that Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin have decided to “continue to test the forces of the Unified State.”
Khrenin cited “increased military activity near the external borders of the Unified State and the worsening situation in Donbas,” the region of eastern Ukraine controlled by pro-Russian separatists.
Lukashenko joined Putin in Moscow on Saturday to oversee nuclear drills, according to Russian officials.
Earlier it was reported that hundreds of artillery shells exploded along the line of contact between Ukrainian soldiers and Russian-backed separatists, and thousands of people evacuated eastern Ukraine as fears grew that instability in the region would trigger a Russian invasion.
Western leaders warned that Russia was preparing to attack its neighbor, surrounded on three sides by some 150,000 troops, fighter jets and Russian military equipment. Russia held nuclear drills on Saturday and conventional military exercises in neighboring Belarus and has ongoing naval exercises in the Black Sea.
The United States and many European countries have been accusing Russia for months of trying to create pretexts to invade. They have threatened massive and immediate sanctions if it does.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy asked President Putin to choose a place where the two leaders could meet to try to resolve the crisis. Russia has denied having plans to invade.
“Ukraine will continue to follow only the diplomatic path for the sake of a peaceful resolution,” Zelenskyy said Saturday at an international security conference in Munich, Germany. There was no immediate response from the Kremlin.
A senior European Union official, Charles Michel, said on Sunday that “the big question remains: does the Kremlin want dialogue?”
“We cannot forever offer an olive branch while Russia conducts missile tests and continues to build up troops,” Michel, president of the European Council, told the Munich Security Conference. “One thing is certain: if there is a new military aggression, we will react with huge sanctions.”
Separatist leaders in eastern Ukraine ordered a full military mobilization on Saturday and sent more civilians to Russia, which has issued some 700,000 passports to residents of rebel-held territories. Claims that Russian citizens are in danger could be used as a justification for military action.
Military commanders in the breakaway territories accused Ukrainian forces of carrying out artillery attacks over the past day and said two civilians had been killed in a failed attack on a village near the Russian border.
US Vice President Kamala Harris on Sunday stressed the importance of the moment Europe is facing.
“We talked about the potential for war in Europe,” Harris said at the Munich Security Conference. “70 years have passed, and in those 70 years (…) there has been peace and security.”
Ukraine’s president criticized the United States and other Western countries for no longer applying new sanctions on Russia. Speaking before the conference, Zelenskyy also questioned the West’s refusal to allow Ukraine’s immediate NATO membership.
Putin has demanded that NATO not include Ukraine as a member. Harris stood by the US decision to wait to impose sanctions, but said he would not question the Ukrainian president’s “wishes for his country.”
In a new sign of fears that a war could break out within days, Germany and Austria told their citizens to leave Ukraine. German airline Lufthansa has canceled flights to the capital Kiev and to Odessa, a Black Sea port that could be a key invasion target.
The lines of communication between Moscow and the West remained open: US and Russian defense officials spoke on Friday. French President Emmanuel Macron spoke to Putin by phone on Sunday. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov have agreed to meet next week.
___
Jim Heintz reported from Moscow. Mstyslav Chernov in Zolote, Ukraine, Geir Moulson in Berlin, Aamer Madhani in Munich, Robert Burns and Darlene Superville in Washington, Liudas Dapkus in Vilnius, Lithuania, and Yuras Karmanau in Kiev contributed to this report.
–
