Hundreds of U.S. soldiers began arriving Saturday in Lithuania, a NATO member state, to prepare for military exercises near the border with Belarus. According to AFP, this comes at a time of heightened border tensions between the two countries over last month’s disputed presidential election in Belarus.
An AFP photographer on the scene reported that more than 10 U.S. Army Abrams main battle tanks crossed into Lithuania from neighboring NATO partner Poland on Saturday afternoon.
The Lithuanian Defense Ministry said in a statement that the deployment, which will last until November, is planned “as announced in advance and is not connected to any events in the region.
Belarusian President Lukashenko won re-election on August 9, but allegations of election fraud by the opposition camp sparked massive public protests.
Lithuania is leading the European opposition to Lukashenko. In addition to sheltering opposition candidate Tikhanovskaya, who claimed victory in the election, Lithuania joined forces with its Baltic neighbors Estonia and Latvia to blacklist Lukashenka from sanctions.
Lukashenko, for his part, insisted that he had won the election fairly and forcefully suppressed mass demonstrations in the country calling for his ouster. Lukashenko also accused NATO of increasing its troops in Poland and Lithuania along the western border of Belarus. But Poland, Lithuania, and NATO have all called the accusations baseless.
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