Belarus says Russian troops there will stay put

MOSCOW • Russian forces will remain in Belarus indefinitely, Minsk said after announcing that massive joint military drills between the two countries would not end yesterday as planned.

The move further intensified pressure on Ukraine, near whose borders Moscow has massed hundreds and thousands of troops, as Western leaders warned of an imminent Russian invasion.

United States President Joe Biden yesterday convened a National Security Council meeting to discuss the matter, while French President Emmanuel Macron called Russian leader Vladimir Putin and thereafter Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a last-ditch effort to avert the crisis.

Russia and Belarus decided to extend their joint drills because of military activity near their borders as well as an escalation of the situation in eastern Ukraine's Donbass region, the Belarusian Defence Ministry said.

Belarus Defence Minister Viktor Khrenin said their focus was "to ensure an adequate response and de-escalation of military preparations of ill-wishers near our common borders".

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the West's repeated warnings that Russia was about to invade Ukraine were provocative and could have adverse consequences.

Moscow denies any such intention and says that Ukraine and the West are whipping up tensions by sending Nato reinforcements to eastern Europe.

Western countries are preparing sanctions they say will be wide-reaching against Russian companies and individuals in the case of an invasion.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba yesterday urged the West to impose some of the sanctions now, rather than wait for an invasion.

"Russia has to be stopped right now," he said.

The focus of tensions in recent days has been on the swathe of eastern Ukraine that Russian-backed rebels seized in 2014.

Incidents of shelling across the line dividing government forces and separatists - which were sporadic in the past - increased sharply last week.

Explosions were heard yesterday in the centre of Donetsk city in the eastern Donbass region controlled by separatists. Heavy shelling was heard elsewhere in the region. SMS messages sent to residents of Donetsk urged men to report for military duty.

More than 30,000 people from Donetsk and nearby Luhansk have crossed the Russian border in the past 24 hours, Tass news agency reported.

Local military forces in Luhansk yesterday said two civilians had been killed and five buildings were damaged in shelling by the Ukraine military.

The separatists began evacuating residents last Friday, saying that Ukraine was planning to attack - which Kyiv denied.

The Ukrainian military said its forces were sticking to a ceasefire agreement and "open fire exclusively when the actions of the Russian occupation forces pose a threat to the life and health of Ukrainian servicemen and civilians".

Kyiv's Western allies are concerned that Russia may use the escalation as a pretext for wider conflict. "The plan that we are seeing is for something that could be really the biggest war in Europe since 1945 just in terms of sheer scale," Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson said.

REUTERS, BLOOMBERG