MOSCOW (Reuters) - Joint military drills involving Russian and Belarusian forces in ex-Soviet Belarus will run from Feb. 10-20, the Belarusian Defence Ministry said on Tuesday.

       Minsk said on Monday that Russian military forces and hardware had begun arriving in Belarus for joint drills amid soaring tensions between East and West over Ukraine.

       (Reporting by Maxim Rodionov and Vladimir Soldatkin; Writing by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber; Editing by Catherine Evans)