Belarus will accept up to 170 tanks and about a hundred guns from Russia to the regional groupingMINSK, October 17 – RIA Novosti.
About 170 tanks, up to 200 armored combat vehicles and up to 100 guns and mortars with a caliber of more than 100 mm will arrive in Belarus within the framework of the Belarusian-Russian military grouping being deployed from the Russian Federation, said Valery Revenko, head of the Department of International Military Cooperation – Assistant to the Minister of Defense of Belarus for International Military Cooperation.
Revenko also stressed that in the current conditions of the military-political situation, most of the proposals of the Ministry of Defense of Belarus "on the need for dialogue (with Western partners – ed.) and the removal of tension under various pretexts were not accepted." "The result is the deployment of a regional grouping of troops," he stated.
The representative of the Ministry of Defense of Belarus also noted that the threats to the security of the Union State of Belarus and Russia are considered "the deployment of the NATO grouping near the borders of the SG against the background of the lack of dialogue, increasing the intensity of NATO training activities with offensive themes, encouraging Belarusian radical elements to overthrow the legitimate government in the Republic of Belarus." He also stressed that all this information was brought to the military attaches accredited in the country during a briefing at the Ministry of Defense on Monday.
On October 10, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko announced that he had agreed with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the involvement of a regional grouping of troops in connection with the aggravation of the situation on the western borders of the Union State. The Ministry of Defense of Belarus clarified that the total number of Russian servicemen in the joint regional grouping of troops in Belarus will be slightly less than 9 thousand.
