Russian troops will leave Belarus when they complete training exercises, the Kremlin announced Tuesday.
The news is likely well received by Western countries concerned about Russia’s troop movement and the possibility Russian President Vladimir Putin will launch an invasion of Ukraine.
“No one has ever said that Russian troops will remain on the territory of Belarus, this has never been discussed,” Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for Putin, told Tass. “We are talking about allied exercises, and, of course, it is understood that upon completion of these exercises, the troops will return to their permanent places of deployment.”
BIDEN DEPLOYING 3,000 TROOPS TO FORTIFY EUROPE AMID RUSSIA-UKRAINE STANDOFF
Putin has deployed more than 100,000 troops to Russia’s border with Ukraine and sent thousands of others into Belarus, a country with borders closer to Kyiv.
U.S. lawmakers were briefed about the latest military and intelligence assessments last week. Should Russia launch a full-scale invasion, it could result in as many as 50,000 civilians injured or killed, launching a humanitarian crisis creating up to 5 million refugees, and they could overrun Ukraine in a matter of two days, according to the Washington Post.
The Biden administration has warned for weeks that Russia could create a staged reason to justify an invasion. Most recently, on the possibility of a “false flag operation,” Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby warned that “we believe that Russia would produce a very graphic propaganda video, which would include corpses and actors that would be depicting mourners and images of destroyed locations.”
Last week, President Joe Biden deployed roughly 3,000 troops overseas. The troops, none of whom are going to Ukraine but instead to other Eastern European allies, are separate from the U.S. troops on “heightened alert” for a possible deployment for a NATO response.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
At the heart of the conflict for Russia is ensuring NATO does not expand further east to include Ukraine, a former Soviet country. Meanwhile, the United States wants to defend the smaller country from what could be the largest military incursion since World War II.
