situation “unpredictable”
Families of US diplomats to leave Belarus
2/1/2022 6:51 am
The United States recently called on the families of its diplomats to leave Ukraine. Now families of government employees are also to leave Belarus. The reason: the “unusual and worrying Russian military presence” in the region.
In the wake of the Ukraine conflict, the US has asked family members of US government employees in Belarus to leave the country. The US State Department also advised its citizens not to travel to the country close to Moscow due to “the risk of detention and the unusual and worrying Russian military presence along the Belarus-Ukraine border”. The situation is “unpredictable” and tensions in the region are “increasing”.
The transfer of soldiers to Ukraine’s neighboring country raises fears that Russia may intend to attack Ukraine from the north, they say. According to the US Department of Defense, Russia continued to deploy troops there over the weekend.
The US recently asked family members of US diplomats in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev to leave the country. The reason for this was the “continued threat of a Russian military operation”.
The West fears that Russia is preparing to invade eastern Ukraine after annexing Crimea in 2014. The Kremlin denies any plans to attack, but at the same time argues that it feels threatened by Ukraine and NATO.
Tens of thousands of Russian soldiers in Belarus?
During a heated exchange of blows between Washington and Moscow in the UN Security Council on Monday, the United States accused Russia of wanting to station “more than 30,000 soldiers” in Belarus, in northern Ukraine, “by early February”. Russia’s UN Ambassador Wassily Nebensia and his Belarusian colleague Valentin Rybakov justified the troop transfer with “joint military exercises” planned for February, which take place regularly.
Washington had previously threatened Belarus with retaliatory measures if it supported Russia invading Ukraine.