Russian pressure on Donbass: Minsk warns Warsaw

After the fall of Lisitsansk, a strategic city in the Donbass, on Sunday, Russian forces are advancing west and towards Sloviansk. Tuesday evening, “Heavy fighting takes place near Lisitsansk (…)”, Serguiï Gaïdaï, the governor of the Luhansk region, said as quoted by AFP. Russian forces “Keep trying to create columns to convert more items” For the Donetsk region, it forms the Donbass with Luhansk.

Russian troops advanced west on Tuesday in Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, the two largest cities in Donetsk province still under Ukrainian control. In the morning, they were about ten kilometers from Chiversk, and they had been shelling for several days, so they were about fifty kilometers from Sloviansk.

The Russian military said on Tuesday it had bombed two Ukrainian command posts in Donetsk. As he said on Tuesday, he is investigating torture suffered by Russian soldiers captured by Ukrainian forces and released during a prisoner exchange with Ukraine.

The Russian Defense Ministry also confirmed on Tuesday evening that in the Donetsk region, “Nationalists” The Ukrainians were getting ready “A provocation with the use of poisonous substances” – According to the ministry, a large amount of chlorine was brought to the cut filtration plant. He said the Ukrainian military uses the chemical infrastructure to base its men and weapons there. “Preconditions for accidents leading to thousands of civilian deaths”.

In this context, a two-day international conference in Lugano (Switzerland) ended on Tuesday evening, organized to try to draw the outlines of the reconstruction of Ukraine, the cost of which kyiv estimates at 750 billion dollars. The declaration adopted on Tuesday indicated that the signatories “We are fully committed to supporting Ukraine in its journey”.

Meanwhile, in Brussels, NATO’s thirty member states on Tuesday began the process of approving Sweden and Finland’s accession, which will allow the alliance to organize a coordinated defense of the Arctic in the Mediterranean in the face of Russian maneuvers. But it also depends on Ankara’s goodwill. “At 32, we will be even stronger (…) at a time when we are facing the most serious security crisis in decades”, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said. “But that will take months.”

Instead, Belarusian civil servants have warned that they are ready to respond adequately to a military provocation by the West, first targeting Polish military infrastructure. “It must first be understood by the Polish leadership that in the event of a conflict, the territory of Poland will become the main target of attack with its military infrastructure, such as decision centers, element control system, permanent deployment points of the national armed forces, arsenals and bases, as well as important installations for its economy”, Deputy Chief of the Belarusian Army Raslan Kosygin said in a statement published Wednesday, July 6, by the official Belarusian news agency. “We are prepared for different scenarios of the situation. I do not want this situation to be military, but the West must clearly understand that our response to any armed provocation will certainly be appropriate and severe. he added.

The Belarusian general expressed his confidence “The set of measures taken to stabilize the European part of the US missile defense system should be given special attention in view of the assessment of military challenges and threats, including our country”, Poland is currently completing the process of operating a missile defense base. Kosikin concluded “Washington and Brussels testify to the systematic development of the means of creating groups of forces in a short period of time, and the entire military preparations for the West, including the territory of Poland.”

Belda Agency quoted the head of the General Directorate of Intelligence and deputy head of the Belarusian Armed Forces R. Kosykin said. “The landscape of Poland and, for that matter, the territory of the Baltic states is changing[ait] In the polygon that America expects[aie]It cannot provoke another bloody conflict in Europe against the Russian Federation and its allies. “Currently, the construction of a missile defense base in Poland is being completed. Another destructive trend in Warsaw’s operation that requires detailed monitoring and analysis, so far unsubstantiated, but dangerous, is that some Polish politicians are trying to start returning the lands of so-called historical Poland, that is, the western parts of Ukraine and Belarus. “, he added. “Furthermore, all the military preparations of the West, including the Polish territory, demonstrate that Washington and Brussels, under the pretext of preventing the threat from the East, plan to quickly build up groups of forces. Their possible use in operational directions […] In fact, it was a preparation for military operations towards the east. He finished.

Earlier, Belarusian civil servants announced that NATO forces had stepped up their deployment near the borders of Russia and Belarus.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Saturday that his military had intercepted missiles fired from Ukraine in Belarus.
He had vowed to retaliate if Ukraine continued its escalation against his country.

During a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin last March, A. Lukashenko indicated that his country was also targeted along with the Donbass region. He published a map showing preparations for an attack on Russia and Belarus ahead of Russian military action. By mid-June, he said “Poland already dreams of taking control of western Ukraine”. And be warned: “We have to react, because we cannot allow the Poles to surround us, which is a dangerous way.”