Russia, Belarus to press ahead with military drills criticised by Ukraine

FILE PHOTO: Belarusian military helicopters fly during the Zapad 2017 war games near the village of Volka, Belarus September 19, 2017. REUTERS/Sergei Grits/Pool/File Photo

Russia and Belarus will hold large-scale crossborder military drills next month, Belarus' defence ministry said on Thursday, which Ukraine has described as a threat to its own security and that of NATO.

The "West-2021" drills will involve thousands of servicemen, including those from Moscow-led defence bloc member Kazakhstan, as well as tanks, artillery and aircraft, the ministry said in a statement.

Military exercises will be held at training grounds in both Russia and Belarus and will be based on a scenario where "international tensions are escalated to a level that may destabilise the situation in the region and provoke aggression against the Union State (of Russia and Belarus)", it said.

FILE PHOTO: People watch a T-72 B3 tank operated by a crew from Belarus during the Tank Biathlon competition at the International Army Games 2018 in Alabino outside Moscow, Russia, August 11, 2018. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov/File Photo

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's deputy chief of staff, Roman Mashovets, said in April the planned drills were "a threat to Euro-Atlantic security" and "aggressive in nature".

Belarus' defence ministry said, in turn, that the exercise carried no threat, "neither for the European community as a whole not for any neighbouring countries".

(Reporting by Olzhas Auyezov, Editing by William Maclean)