1 year ago
61
There’s one item that you might have noticed is routinely missing from Daily Kos’ ongoing coverage of the invasion in Ukraine: Daily updates on movement of troops and vehicles inside Belarus.
In just the last two weeks, media has breathlessly reported on Belarusian forces driving toward the southern border … even though those forces never actually left their home state, never came near the border, and returned to their starting point a couple of days later. That part of their journey drew much less attention.
Then there has been the attention given a reported new Russian buildup in Belarus. This buildup includes video of what’s reportedly a long line of rail cars ferrying 50 fresh new tanks to the front lines. Those videos have been both widely shared on social media as well as cable networks, even though they’ve been carefully staged so that there are no real indications of when or where they were shot. (Similar videos have supposedly shown 50 new Russian tanks, sometimes the same 50 Russian tanks, reportedly “in the Svatove area.” Spoiler alert: Nope.)
Let me just quickly return to what kos has been saying month after month since the invasion began. This applies equally well to the idea that Belarus itself might send forces into the war, or that Russia is assembling a force along the northern border to make a second go at Kyiv.
The rumor seems like total bullshit. But even if true, it hardly presents a real threat to Ukraine’s war effort. Russia is losing ground every single day. Opening up a third front isn’t in the cards.
Count today as another day when we’re not staying on top of every move being made in Belarus.
