The Polish Ambassador to the United States expressed grave concerns about the Russian-Belarusian exercise
Eastern European countries are in an atmosphere of "fear and uncertainty" in connection with the forthcoming West-2017 joint Russian and Belarusian military exercise, said Polish Ambassador to the United States Piotr Wilczek. The West-2017 drills will take place on the territory of Belarus from September 14 to 20.
"We do not know much about this exercise due to the lack of transparency. This is primarily a danger to Ukraine and it is a potential threat to other countries too. I'm not saying that something is going to happen, like some kind of an attack or provocation against NATO members. Nevertheless, there is still an atmosphere of fear and uncertainty, especially associated with the West-2017 military drills," said Wilczek, speaking at the Aspen Security Forum in the United States.
Earlier, a number of NATO countries expressed concern about the upcoming exercise. The Ministry of Defense of Lithuania prepared a report on threats to its national security, seeing particular danger exactly in the West-2017 exercise. The Ministry of Defense of Estonia kept alert to the possibility of incidents during this exercise.
The Ministry of Defense of Belarus called the report a fantasy and refused to comment on it. Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary for the Russian President said that the statement of the Lithuanian special services is a manifestation of total Russophobia.
Later, Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics stated that he received all the answers regarding the forthcoming West-2017 Belarusian-Russian exercise in September after the talks with his Belarusian counterpart in Minsk.