Russia has sent some 30,000 combat troops, modern weapons to Belarus, NATO says

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg attends a joint news conference with North Macedonian Prime Minister Dimitar Kovacevski in Brussels, Belgium February 3, 2022. REUTERS/Johanna Geron

Russia has been moving some 30,000 combat troops and modern weapons to Belarus over the last days, Moscow's biggest military deployment to the country since the end of the Cold War, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday.

The deployment included Speznaz special operations forces, SU-35 fighter jets, dual capable Iskander missiles and S-400 air defence systems, he told reporters in Brussels.

"All this will be combined with Russia's annual nuclear forces exercise," he added. The term dual capable, which Stoltenberg used for the Iskander missiles, is used to describe weapons meant for conventional and nuclear warfare.

FILE PHOTO: A radar vehicle of the S-400 Triumph surface-to-air missile system drives along a road on the way to Belarus to join military drills, in Khabarovsk region, Russia, in this still image taken from video released January 21, 2022. Russian Defence Ministry/Handout via REUTERS

(Reporting by Sabine Siebold; Editing by Benoit Van Overstraeten)