Russia used Belarus as a springboard for its invasion of Ukraine last February, the Reuters news agency reported.
The Belarusian defence ministry was cited as saying on Monday that the two allies started joint army exercises involving a "mechanised brigade subdivision."
Russia and Belarus also plan to conduct joint air force drills from January 16 to February 1 using Belarusian military airfields, according to the Belarusian defence ministry.
The authorities in Minsk said the air drills were defensive and that Belarus would not enter Russia's war in Ukraine, according to Reuters.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky last week called on his country's forces to be "ready" at the border with Belarus amid concerns that Russia could launch a new attack on Ukraine from the north.
The Russian defence minister in December visited his Belarusian counterpart in Minsk in an apparent "attempt to place pressure on Belarus to further support Russia’s offensive campaign in Ukraine," a US think tank reported at the time.
Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko said last month that Belarusian and Russian forces continued to "train together on Belarusian territory so that the Union State can repel any aggression," according to the US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
The ISW has previously assessed that Belarus "is highly unlikely to enter the war in Ukraine due to domestic factors that constrain Lukashenko’s willingness to do so."
Monday is day 327 of Russia’s war against Ukraine.
(gs)
Source: IAR, PAP, Reuters
