Russia, Belarus conduct military drills as migrant crisis on EU border intensifies

Russia and Belarus flexed their military might for a third time this week near the Poland-Belarus border, where thousands of people are stranded in deplorable conditions, trapped at the center of an intensifying humanitarian and geopolitical crisis.

On Friday, Russia and Belarus held joint paratrooper drills near Poland, exercises the Belarusian defense ministry said were "in connection with the buildup of military activity near the state border of the Republic of Belarus."

Some 15,000 Polish soldiers have been deployed to Poland's border with Belarus in recent days in reaction to a tense standoff that the European Union, the United States and NATO say is of Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko's making.

NATO said Friday it was monitoring for any escalation or provocation in the situation on its members' borders with Belarus after the drills.

Western leaders, including prime ministers of neighboring Poland, Latvia and Lithuania, are accusing the Lukashenko regime of manufacturing a migrant crisis on the EU's eastern frontier as retribution for sanctions over human rights abuses.

Lukashenko's government has repeatedly denied such claims, instead blaming the West for the crossings and treatment of migrants.

Trapped in the crossfire are upwards of 2,000 people stuck between Poland and Belarus who are now facing conditions the United Nations has called "catastrophic," with desperate scenes of hunger and hypothermia playing out in freezing forests and at makeshift camps at the border.

Russia, Belarus' largest (and most important) political and economic partner, continues to defend Minsk's handling of the border crisis while also denying any involvement in it.

Russia demonstrated that support by flying two long-range Russian Tupolev Tu-22M3 supersonic long-range bombers over Belarusian airspace on Wednesday and on Thursday.

The aircraft, known to have nuclear capabilities, practiced "issues of interaction with ground control points" with armed forces of both countries, the Russian defense ministry said.

Neighboring Ukraine is also scaling up security. On Thursday, it announced it would hold military drills with some 8,500 servicemen and 15 helicopters in an area near its borders with Poland and Belarus to counter a potential migrant crisis.

The show of force unfolding across the region is continuing to test a fragile political order, with allegations from the United States on Russia's military buildup this week deepening concerns over the potential for a wider geopolitical crisis.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday that the US is "concerned by reports of unusual Russian military activity" and mentioned the possibility that Russia may be "attempting to rehash" its 2014 invasion of Ukraine.

Russia hit back at the allegations on Friday, saying that they represented an "empty, groundless escalation of tensions."

SOURCE: CNN INTERNATIONAL