MINSK, 9 February (BelTA) - The manpower and firepower involved in the Russian-Belarusian exercise Allied Resolve 2022 does not exceed the limit set by the Vienna Document 2011, Russian Ambassador to Belarus Boris Gryzlov said, TASS reports.
"Russian troops and armaments arrived [in Belarus] for the exercise. I would like to emphasize that the Vienna Document sets a certain limit for the strength of the troops and armaments in an exercise. This limit has not been exceeded, and therefore there is nothing to worry about," he said in an interview with the Rossiya-24 TV channel.
Ambassador Boris Gryzlov also said that Moscow will supply Minsk with the weapons that it considers possible. He described this as “a common practice” for strengthening relations between the countries. "I know that the issue of arms supplies was discussed during the meeting of Russian Defense Minister Shoigu and Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko. The matter was about modern weapons, and this should not be a cause of concern for the West. There is nothing extraordinary in this. We will supply the weapons that we consider possible, this is a common practice to strengthen our Union State group of forces and beef up the protection of our western border," he said.
At the same time, he noted that NATO has been building up forces in Poland at the border with Belarus. "We see that NATO has been deploying more weapons closer to the border of our Union State, in particular in Poland, and building up its troops. These are no longer dozens or hundreds. These are thousands of troops," RIA Novosti quoted the diplomat as saying.
