BARYSAW: Explosions rang out, artillery shells screeched and jets roared as a few dozen men — including US military officials — watched through binoculars as Belarusian and Russian troops charged across a training ground.
Moscow and its key ally Minsk say the drills, called Zapad, are designed to simulate a possible invasion of their territory.
But it is NATO’s eastern flank that has its tail up about a possible attack — spooked by the movement of thousands of troops just days after Russian drones were downed over Poland and with Warsaw warning “open conflict” is closer than at any point since World War II.
To host Belarus, the concerns are overblown.
“We have heard a lot of things... that we are threatening NATO, that we are going to invade the Baltic states,” said Belarusian Defense Minister Viktor Khrenin, overseeing the drills at the Barysaw base, east of Minsk, in a field uniform.
