Russia sent a pair of nuclear-capable long-range bombers to patrol the skies of ally Belarus on Saturday amid spiraling tensions over Ukraine.
The Russian Defense Ministry reported that the two Tu-22M3 bombers practiced interaction with the Belarusian air force and air defense during a four-hour mission. The flight followed several similar patrols over Belarus, which borders Ukraine to the north.
The mission came after the Kremlin moved troops from Siberia and the Far East to Belarus for extensive joint exercises. The deployment added to the Russian military buildup on the borders with Ukraine, fueling Western fears of a possible invasion.
Russia has denied that it has plans to attack Ukraine, but has urged the United States and its allies to make binding commitments that they will not accept Ukraine into NATO, will not deploy offensive weapons, and will reverse NATO deployments in Europe from East. Washington and NATO have rejected the demands.
The West has called on Russia to withdraw an estimated 100,000 troops from areas near Ukraine, but the Kremlin has responded by saying it will station troops where needed on Russian soil. As tensions over Ukraine escalated, the Russian military began a series of war games that stretched from the Arctic to the Black Sea.
The deployment of Russian troops in Belarus raised concerns in the West that Moscow might be staging an attack on Ukraine from the north. The Ukrainian capital of Kiev is just 75 kilometers (50 miles) from the border with Belarus.
In recent months, Russia has held a series of joint exercises with Belarus and repeatedly sent its nuclear-capable long-range bombers to patrol the skies over Belarus, which borders NATO members Poland, Lithuania and Latvia.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who is increasingly relying on political and financial support from the Kremlin in the wake of sanctions imposed by the West over his operations against protests in his own Western territory, has urged closer defense ties with Moscow and recently offered to host Russia’s nuclear weapons.
In an interview with official Russian television broadcast on Saturday, Lukashenko stressed that the Russia-led security alliance had demonstrated its ability to deploy quickly when its members briefly sent forces last month to Kazakhstan to help stabilize the situation after unrest that They had fatal results.
“While they (NATO) will continue to prepare to send some soldiers here, we are already deployed in the English Channel, and they know it,” he said, referring to the Western allies.
The Belarusian president downplayed the threat of war, but added that if the conflict breaks out “it will last three or four days at most.”
“There is no one there to fight us,” he said of Ukraine.
On Saturday, the German newspaper Bild published a report that Russia is preparing to attack Ukraine from various points, seize major cities and install a puppet government. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova denied the accusations.