Russia and Belarus begin joint military exercises. NATO expects 30,000 Russian troops to arrive in Belarus by the Feb. 10 start of the second phase of the "Allied Resolve" exercise, the most Russian troops present in the country since the Cold War era. The exercise, which runs until Feb. 20, is the ostensible reason for a large part of Russia's military buildup near Ukraine, which the Ukrainian defense minister on Feb. 3 put at 115,000 troops. Russia's continued buildup has sparked a flurry of diplomatic activity. French President Emmanuel Macron will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Feb. 7 in Moscow and with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv the following day, while U.S. President Joe Biden will meet with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Feb. 7 before Scholz travels to Kyiv and Moscow from Feb. 14-15 in a bid to calm tensions between NATO and Russia. If Russia does not remove large numbers of troops and equipment from Belarus after the exercises, it might instead provide a new justification for its military activities in Belarus and near Ukraine. This could take the form of a Feb. 4 agreement between Russia and Belarus on military cooperation until 2025, the details of which remain undisclosed.