-
Belarus’ president called Ukraine an “enemy” and said his troops are ready for battle.
-
Alexander Lukashenko also said his country was increasing its military presence on the border with Ukraine.
-
Lukashenko is a staunch ally of Putin and supported his invasion of Ukraine.
Russia’s neighbor and ally Belarus has said it will increase its military presence along its border with Ukraine, with its president declaring his troops ready for combat.
Alexander Lukashenko called Ukraine an “enemy” in a recent speech and said his soldiers along the border with Ukraine have a “high combat readiness,” according to a translation of his remarks by the Ukrainian media outlet Euromaidan.
He also said that Belarus has increased the number of troops and missile systems.
“Special operations forces have been deployed, including not only border guards but also our military personnel. As the border guards report, they have now blocked the likely direction of enemy movements,” Lukashenko said, per Euromaidan.
He added: “The Air Force and the Air Defense Forces are on high alert – both ours and the Russian Armed Forces, with full coordination between them.”
Belarus, which borders both Ukraine and Russia, is seen as loyal to Russia and a kind of Russian puppet state. Lukashenko has been in power since 1994 and is close to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The country was not directly involved in Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, but it has supported Russian efforts since they began in February 2022.
Thousands of Russian troops entered Ukraine from Belarus at the beginning of the invasion. Russia also launched ballistic missiles into Ukraine from Belarusian territory, and Russian bombers launched missiles into Ukraine from Belarusian airspace.
Since the start of the full-scale invasion, Russia has also stationed tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.
Lukashenko’s comments indicate he is concerned about the approach of Ukrainian troops near his border. Other Belarusian officials have also expressed their concerns about this.
For example, a senior Belarusian military official said in late June that Ukraine was “trying to drag our country into war.”
The Ukrainian Border Guard Service responded by stating that all of Ukraine’s activities near the border with Belarus were purely defensive in nature, Euromaidan reported.
Ukraine has portrayed Belarus’s comments as part of a disinformation operation. In May, Ukrainian officials said Russia could be conducting a psychological operation aimed at “sowing mass panic” in Ukraine by making people believe that Belarusian troops would join the fight.
“We expect a series of provocative statements from the highest leaders of Russia and Belarus that pose a threat to Ukraine soon,” the Center for Combating Disinformation of the Security and Defense Council of Ukraine said.
There are no signs that Ukraine will send troops to Belarus. Russia will probably react strongly to this.
There are no indications yet that Lukashenko is considering sending troops to Ukraine.
Last year he said his soldiers would join the war if Ukrainian soldiers entered Belarus.
It is unlikely that Belarusian troops would have much of an impact even if they did participate in the war.
Mark Cancian, a retired U.S. Marine Corps colonel and defense expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Business Insider in 2022 that “the Belarusian armed forces are small and weak.”
He said Belarus’s military would be “eaten alive” if it invaded Ukraine and said “the Belarusians have been very careful not to involve their own troops in the attack.”
The British Ministry of Defence also said in March 2023 that Belarus’s military has much less experience than the Russian military.
Read the original article on Business Insider
