According to the Belta state news agency, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko stated on Sunday that Minsk had stationed almost a third of its armed forces along the entire border and that Ukraine had more than 120,000 troops stationed at its border with Belarus.The pro-Russian Lukashenko was speaking in the context of the Ukrainian incursion into Russia, which started on August 6 when thousands of Kyiv’s troops broke through Russia’s western border, severely embarrassing Putin’s senior military brass.
In an interview with Russian state television, Belta quoted Lukashenko as saying, “Seeing their aggressive policy, we have introduced there and placed in certain points – in case of war, they would be defence – our military along the entire border.”
“According to Lukashenko, nearly a third of the Belarusian army is stationed near the Ukrainian border.”
A request for comment from Reuters was not answered by Kyiv.
Speaking to the Ukrainian media outlet Ukrainska Pravda on Sunday, Andriy Demchenko, a spokesman for the Ukrainian border service, stated that nothing had changed on the border with Belarus.Demchenko stated, “It is evident that Lukashenko’s discourse remains unchanged, consistently intensifying the circumstances to appease the nation that sponsors terrorism.””We do not observe any increase in the number of Belarusian units near our border, either in terms of personnel or equipment.”The precise number of troops Minsk stationed along the border was not disclosed by Lukashenko. According to the Military Balance report from the 2022 International Institute for Strategic Studies, Belarus has approximately 48,000 professional soldiers and 12,000 state border troops.
The situation at their shared border “remains tense,” according to Belarus’s efence Minister Viktor Khrenin, who stated on Friday that there was a high likelihood of an armed provocation from neighbouring Ukraine.The border between Belarus and Ukraine is “as never before,” according to Lukashenko, and Ukrainian troops who attempt to cross it will suffer severe losses.
(Source: Reuters)
