First Russian soldiers arrive in Belarus as the country is to host 9,000 troops

The defence ministry in Minsk on Sunday (October 16) said just under 9,000 Russian troops would be stationed in Belarus as part of a "regional grouping" of forces to protect its borders.

"The first troop trains with Russian servicemen who are part of the (regional grouping) began to arrive in Belarus," Valeriy Revenko, head of the defence ministry's international military cooperation department, wrote on Twitter. "The relocation will take several days.

"The total number will be a little less than 9,000 people."

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