NATO is witnessing the largest build-up of Russian military forces in Belarus since the Cold War, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said.
After meeting with Prime Minister of North Macedonia Dimitar Kovachevski on February 3, he said that Belarus would deploy, according to NATO estimates, combat units numbering 30,000 people, special forces units, the latest fighters, including Su-35, Iskander missile systems and complexes air defense S-400.
“All this is happening in parallel with the exercises of the Russian nuclear forces expected this month,” Stoltenberg said. He called on Russia “to de-escalate”, writes TASS.
The NATO Secretary General also wrote on Twitter that he spoke with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban about the crisis around Ukraine. Stoltenberg noted that all NATO allies agree on the “importance of dialogue and deterrence” in relation to Russia.
Meanwhile, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, at a meeting in Minsk with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, said that the Belarusian-Russian exercises in the south of the republic are important against the backdrop of NATO and Ukraine’s actions. Shoigu, for his part, positively assessed the actions for the transfer of Russian military forces to Belarus, BelTA reports.
On February 1, Hungarian Prime Minister Orban held a negotiations with the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin.