Belarusian MFA Summons Ukraine’s Ambassador Over Statements On ‘Slavic Brotherhood 2017’ Army Exercise

The Ukrainian Ambassador was pointed at the “incorrectness” of his assessment of the Russia-Belarus military exercises.

The Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned Ambassador of Ukraine to Belarus Igor Kyzym on June 26. The ambassador was summoned in connection with “making tendentious statements” for mass media about the Belarusian-Russian-Serbian military exercise Slavic Brotherhood 2017, the press-center of the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs told BelTA.

“The Ambassador was told that his inappropriate remarks had failed to live up to the high level of Belarusian-Ukrainian friendly relations, had been incorrect, groundlessly accused Belarus of failing to observe trust- and security-building measures in the OSCE region,” – the press-center claimed.

The Ambassador's attention was drawn to the fact that “the Slavic Brotherhood 2017 army exercise had been staged in full compliance with the international law and Belarus' commitments to the OSCE”.

“Upon our invitation military observers from Ukraine and other neighboring countries could watch active phases of all the main military exercises ranging from Neman 2001 to Zapad 2013. It is worth noting that in full compliance with our international commitments we could have chosen not to invite foreign observers to watch the exercises,” - representatives of the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs noted.

Meanwhile, the MFA noted, in this period within the framework of the 2011 Vienna Document on Confidence- and Security-Building Measures Ukraine has never invited military observers from Belarus to watch the largest military operations in the Ukrainian territory.”

“The Belarusian side would like to resume the constructive dialogue in the sphere of defense and security in the region”, - the press-center underlined.