Two Russian soldiers killed during a training landing operation in Belarus
Two Russian soldiers were accidentally killed Friday during air exercises jointly with Minsk in western Belarus, near the Polish border, and this comes in the midst of a migrant crisis.
The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement carried by local news agencies that the soldiers' parachutes did not function properly "due to sudden strong gusts of wind" during their jump.
"Despite the doctors' efforts, the two Russian soldiers contracting with the army died of their wounds," she added.
The two dead men belonged to a group of 250 paratroopers that participated in joint exercises with the Belarusian army on Friday.
The Russian army had announced earlier that all of these soldiers had returned to their bases in Russia.
Minsk said that Il-76 transport planes and helicopters of Belarusian forces took part in these maneuvers in the Grodno region, in light of the escalation of tension between Belarus and the European Union in this region.
Thousands of migrants seeking to reach Europe, mainly from the Middle East, are still stuck in difficult conditions on the border between Belarus and Poland.
The European Union accuses Minsk of masterminding this in response to Western sanctions against the regime of President Alexander Lukashenko last year, after its violent suppression of his opponents.
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