Russia on Saturday sent two long-range nuclear-capable bombers on patrol over its ally Belarus amid spiralling tensions over Ukraine.
The Russian Defence Ministry said that the Tu-22M3 bombers practised interaction with the Belarusian air force and air defence assets during a four-hour mission.
The flight followed several similar patrols over Belarus, which borders Ukraine to the north.
The mission came as the Kremlin has moved troops from Siberia and the Far East to Belarus for sweeping joint drills.
The deployment added to the Russian military build-up near Ukraine, fuelling Western fears of a possible invasion.
Russia has denied plans to attack its neighbour Ukraine, but urged the US and its allies to provide a binding pledge that they do not accept Ukraine into Nato or deploy offensive weapons and roll back the alliance deployments to Eastern Europe.
Washington and Nato have rejected the demands
The West has called on Russia to pull back an estimated 100,000 troops from areas near Ukraine, but the Kremlin has responded by saying it will station troops wherever it needs to on the Russian territory.
As tensions over Ukraine soared, the Russian military has launched a series of war games spreading from the Arctic to the Black Sea.
The Russian troop deployment to Belarus raised concerns in the West that Moscow could stage an attack on Ukraine from the north.
The Ukrainian capital is just 50 miles from the border with Belarus.
In recent months, Russia has conducted a series of joint drills with Belarus and repeatedly sent its nuclear-capable long-range bombers to patrol the skies over its neighbour, which borders Nato members Poland, Lithuania and Latvia.
Belarus’ authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko, who has increasingly relied on the Kremlin’s political and financial support amid bruising Western sanctions triggered by his crackdown on domestic protests, has called for closer defence ties with Moscow and recently offered to host Russian nuclear weapons.
In an interview with a Russian state TV host on Saturday, Lukashenko said the Russian-led security alliance demonstrated its quick deployment capability when its members briefly sent forces last month to Kazakhstan to help stabilise the situation after deadly riots.
“While they (Nato) will be still getting prepared to send some troops here, we will already stand at the English Channel, and they know it,” he said in a reference to Western allies.
The Belarusian leader downplayed the threat of war, but added that if it still erupts “it will last for three or four days at most”. “There is no one there to fight us,” he said about Ukraine.
As war fears mounted, Ukrainian authorities launched a series of drills for civilians to prepare for a possible Russian invasion.
“I am here to learn how to defend myself, defend my relatives and also understand how to act in the situation,” Kyiv resident Ilya Goncharov said after taking part in drills on the outskirts of the Ukrainian capital.
“I am happy that I came here to learn the basics of self defence and first aid.”
Amid the standoff over Ukraine, US president Joe Biden has ordered 2,000 US-based troops to Poland and Germany and shifted 1,000 more from Germany to Romania in a show of the US commitment to Nato’s eastern flank.
Earlier this week, Russian president Vladimir Putin signalled Moscow’s readiness for more talks with Washington and its Nato allies.
As part of high-level diplomacy to ease the tensions, French president Emmanuel Macron is heading to Moscow and Kyiv on Monday and Tuesday, while German chancellor Olaf Scholz will travel to Kyiv and Moscow on February 14 and 15.
Amid the tensions with the West, Mr Putin on Friday attended the opening of the Winter Olympics in Beijing and met China’s leader Xi Jinping to strengthen the two countries’ alliance.
In a joint statement, Mr Putin and Mr Xi declared their opposition to any expansion of Nato while affirming that the island of Taiwan is a part of China.
They announced that relations between Moscow and Beijing are “superior to political and military alliances of the Cold War era” and their friendship “has no limits”.
