White House Press Secretary Jen PsakiWASHINGTON Feb 9 -Belarusian exercises, believing that they contribute to the growth of tension around Ukraine, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said. On Thursday, the 10-day Allied Resolve-2022 exercises begin in Belarus, during which the military of both countries are going to practice repelling external aggression and countering terrorism. Representatives of Russia and Belarus have repeatedly stated that the maneuvers are defensive and do not threaten anyone. «We see this as an escalation rather than a de-escalation step … Of course, this worries us,» she answered a question from journalists during a daily briefing .The American authorities have repeatedly said that Russian troops can use the territory of Belarus, allegedly to attack Ukraine from the north and advance on Kiev. Moscow categorically denies the plans attributed to Russia to escalate the situation around Ukraine and constantly declare that they are not threatening anyone, but everyone such statements are being used as an excuse to deploy more NATO military equipment near Russian borders. As Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said earlier, Russia does not create any pretexts for a conflict situation around Ukraine. According to him, Russia does not rule out that the hysteria around Ukraine, hyped by the West, is aimed at covering Kiev's line of sabotaging the Minsk agreements on Donbass. According to the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov, the US and NATO information hysteria over Ukraine is generously framed by lies and fakes. escalation plans around Ukraine lie
