CSTO confirms participation of Belarusian military in CSTO peacekeeping forces in Kazakhstan

The CSTO confirmed to the Belarusian news agency BelTA the participation of the Belarusian military in the CSTO peacekeeping forces sent to Kazakhstan.

The CSTO did not comment on the specific membership of the units.

Earlier, CSTO spokesman Vladimir Zainetdinov said that in accordance with the decision of the CSTO Collective Security Council of 6 January 2022,  the Collective Security Treaty Organization sent the Collective Peacekeeping Forces to the Republic of Kazakhstan for a limited period of time to stabilize and normalize the situation.

“They include units of the Armed Forces of Armenia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan. The main tasks of the CSTO Collective Peacekeeping Forces will be to protect important state and military facilities, assist Kazakhstan’s law enforcement forces in stabilizing the situation and returning it to the legal field,” the spokesman said.

“The Russian part of the peacekeeping contingent is currently being redeployed to the territory of Kazakhstan by military transport aircraft of the Aerospace Forces of Russia. The forward units of the contingent have already started fulfilling their tasks,” the spokesman added.