Russia continues to amass troops in Belarus
Russian troops continue to arrive in Belarus, reports the Belarusian news agency Belta, citing the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Belarus.
The news agency writes that the process of "building up the regional grouping of troops" is taking place in stages. Now the personnel, weapons, military, and special equipment of the Russian Armed Forces are being transferred to the country. Another shipment of new BTR-82A, BTR-80K, armored medical, repair and evacuation vehicles has just arrived in Belarus.
Earlier, the Belarusian authorities restricted access to three districts of the Gomel region bordering Ukraine.
Despite numerous reports that Belarus may join Russia in its invasion of Ukraine, the Ukrainian authorities are confident that this will not happen.
In mid-December, Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces General Valerii Zaluzhnyi said in an interview with The Economist that Russia was preparing about 200,000 soldiers for a new campaign against Kyiv. According to him, in January, but most likely in the spring, Russia will be able to launch a large-scale offensive. But at the same time, the Ukrainian military commander said he did not believe that the Belarusian troops would be involved in the offensive.
According to the adviser to the Ukrainian Presidential Administration, Oleksiy Arestovich, Russia can attack Kyiv, Chernihiv, Sumy, and Kharkiv regions again, but this, in his opinion, is going to be "a suicide".