Belarus has said the joint air force drills it will begin with Russia on Monday are defensive in nature, but the exercises are taking place as concerns grow that Moscow is pushing Minsk to join the war in Ukraine, APA reports citing AlJazeera.

“The exercise is purely defensive in nature,” said Pavel Muraveyko, first deputy state secretary of the Belarusian Security Council, according to a post on the Belarusian defence ministry’s Telegram app on Sunday.

Source: Azeri-Press News Agency