MINSK, 7 December (BelTA) - In today's conditions, we are unlikely to tolerate the ‘jokes' of the Ukrainian military for a long time, we certainly have something to respond with, MP of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of Belarus Igor Khlobukin told BelTA as he commented on the violation of the Belarusian border by a Ukrainian helicopter, and the large-scale exercises of the Ukrainian military near the border with Belarus.
“Ukraine's impertinent and alarming actions show the coordination and approval of these unfriendly steps by their Western partners. For them, the Ukrainian leadership is just a tool, a small coin in a big geopolitical game, which not only threatens our national security on our southern borders but also, what is the craziest and most unthinkable thing, pushes the world to unleash a regional military conflict in the European region. In this situation the Russian-Belarusian exercises on the border with Ukraine as well as the words of the head of state about the necessity to supply Belarus with S-400 and S-500 systems and the possible increase of the number of armed forces will be forced yet necessary steps in response to Kiev's actions,” the MP said.
According to Igor Khlobukin, if Belarus carries out joint exercises, supplies of equipment and weapons as part of the Union State relations with Russia, the country can easily increase the number of military personnel thanks to the territorial troops during the increase of military and political tension. “Today the number of territorial defense troops in Belarus is twice as high as the number of servicemen in its regular army. This is the fact many abroad have apparently forgotten about. Without prejudice to security and the economy, this will help the country to use them to reinforce the protection of the state border areas and perform certain combat tasks together with units and parts of the Armed Forces. In today's conditions we are unlikely to tolerate the ‘jokes' of the Ukrainian military for long. We definitely have something to respond with,” the MP stressed.
