Presidents of Belarus and Russia — Alexander Lukashenko and Vladimir Putin agreed to deploy a joint regional group of forces. The head of Belarus announced at a meeting on security issues. BelTA informs.
Alexander Lukashenko recalled that he had a one-on-one meeting with the Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg after the informal CIS summit.
«In connection with the aggravation on the western borders of the Union State, we agreed to deploy a regional group of Russia and Belarus. It is consistent with our documents. If the threat level reaches the current one, as it is now, we begin to use the Union State group of forces. The basis (I have always said this) of this group is the army, the Armed Forces of the Republic of Belarus. I must inform you that the deployment of this group has begun. It has been in progress for two days, I believe. My order was given for us to start forming this group,» Lukashenko said.
The Belarusian leader said that Russia is now pre-occupied with its own problems to deal with this new conflict.
«A second conflict is what we do not need. As you know, they have their own problems now. That is why, do not count on a large number of the Russian Armed Forces but this group will number more than one thousand. Be ready in the near future to take these people and put them where they need to be, according to our plan, without overdoing it and inflaming the situation,» the president of Belarus said.
