What role will Belarus play in Russia's next military offensive? | DW News

The Belarusian Defence Ministry on Tuesday announced the start of week-long training of their joint military grouping with Russia. According to a ministry statement the training is part of preparation for joint military drills the allies will hold in Russia in September. Moscow used the country as a staging point for the invasion of northern Ukraine.

Katia Glod, who is a Belarus analyst at the Center for European Policy Analysis told DW News that while most military experts believed another attack on Kyiv was likely this year, it was not clear whether it would come from Belarus. "The most significant signal here is that we are not seeing really sufficient number of Russian troops, in fact the number of Russian troops has decreased," Glod told DW's Sarah Kelly. "A few months ago there were about 10-11 thousand, now half at least of those troops have already been sent to Donbas and we have around five thousand Russian troops in Belarus," Glod pointed out, adding that there were presently no signs of a deployment of troops or joint command being built in Belarus.

Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/user/deutschewelleenglish?sub_confirmation=1

For more news go to: http://www.dw.com/en/ Follow DW on social media: ►Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/deutschewellenews/ ►Twitter: https://twitter.com/dwnews ►Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dwnews ►Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/dwnews_hangout Für Videos in deutscher Sprache besuchen Sie: https://www.youtube.com/dwdeutsch #Russia #Ukraine #Belarus