Russia rolled its tanks across Belarus for live-fire drills that drew an ominous warning from NATO and added urgency to Western efforts to avert a feared invasion of Ukraine.
• The war games — set to run until February 20 — followed a gradual Russian military
build-up around Ukraine that some U.S. estimates say has reached 1,30,000 soldiers
grouped in dozens of combat brigades.
• Western leaders have been shuttling to Moscow in an effort to keep the lines of
communication open, giving Russia a chance to air its grievances about NATO’s
expansion into eastern Europe and ex-Soviet states.
• Russia has also sent six warship through the Bosphorus for naval drills on the Black
Sea and the neighbouring Sea of Azov.
• Belarus is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe.
• It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to
the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest.
• Minsk is the capital and largest city