MOSCOW, May 18 (Reuters) – The Kremlin said on Monday that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s assertion that Russia was considering an attack on a NATO country from Belarus did not deserve a response from Russia.
On Friday, Zelenskiy said Russia was seeking to draw Belarus deeper into its war in Ukraine and was weighing plans to attack Ukraine’s north or a NATO country from Belarusian territory.
Belarus borders Ukraine to the south, and NATO members Poland, Lithuania and Latvia to the north and west. It allowed Russia to use its territory as a launchpad for the 2022 invasion of Ukraine and hosts Russian tactical nuclear weapons.
Asked about Zelenskiy’s allegation, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “Such a statement is nothing other than an attempt at further incitement aimed at prolonging the war and escalating tensions.”
“We do not think that such a statement deserves any comment,” he told journalists.
On Monday, the Belarusian Defence Ministry said its armed forces, in cooperation with Russia, had begun an exercise to test the military’s readiness to deploy nuclear weapons. It said this was not aimed against any other state and did not pose security threats in the region.
(Reporting by Dmitry Antonov, Writing by Alessandra Prentice; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
