MINSK, 18 September (BelTA) – The ongoing developments forced Belarus to build the common defense of the Union State together with Russia, Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko said as he addressed the women's forum For Belarus in Minsk on 17 September, BelTA has learned.
“I will be honest with you, we do not know what they are up to. We believe that they have run out of nearly all the tools on their way to real hostilities. Therefore, we had to take the troops away from the street, as I said, we had to call half of our army to arms and shut down the state border with the West, first of all, with Lithuania and Poland. We had to reinforce our border with our brotherly Ukraine, unfortunately,” the head of state said.
“In recent days I have had to build the common defense of the Union State together with the Russian president and the defense minister. We actualized the exercise we had planned long before and this exercise - Slavyanskoye Bratstvo 2020 [Slavonic Brotherhood] - is now taking place in the western part of our country. We also decided to carry out this exercise in two stages in view of a complicated situation. The second stage will be dedicated to you, our women,” the president added.
