West fears Ukraine invasion: Russia launches Belarus military drills

Moscow: Russia and Belarus launched joint military drills on Thursday that have heightened tensions with the West, as Nato leaders pursued an intensive diplomatic push to prevent a feared invasion of Ukraine.

The war games, set to run until February 20, are the latest point of contention between Russia and the West over Ukraine, which quickly denounced the manoeuvres as "psychological pressure".

Leaders in Western capitals have been warning that Russia is preparing to escalate the conflict after a build-up of some 100,000 troops around Ukraine. The United States has said Russia is also dispatching some 30,000 troops to Ukraine’s neighbour Belarus for the exercises that started Thursday.

Moscow and Minsk have not disclosed how many troops are participating in the drills, but the Russian defence ministry confirmed Thursday they had begun.

"The objective of the exercises is to practise suppressing and repelling external aggression with a defensive operation," the ministry said in a statement.

The drills will also focus on "combating terrorism and defending the interests of the Union State," it said, referring to an alliance that binds Russia and Belarus militarily and economically.

The Kremlin has insisted the Russian troops will go home after the exercises. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a statement that "the accumulation of forces at the border is psychological pressure from our neighbours".

"Today we have enough forces to honourably defend our country," he said. The tensions surrounding Ukraine have spurred weeks of intensive talks between Russian, Western and Ukrainian officials aimed at limiting the chance of military action. Russia has put forward sweeping security demands to the United States and the Washington-led Nato military alliance with the aim of reducing their role in eastern Europe and former Soviet states. British Foreign Minister Liz Truss was the latest Western diplomat to travel to Moscow and was scheduled to meet with her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on Thursday.