The president of Belarus on March 1 denied reports that his troops had entered Ukraine.
“The Belarusian army has not and will not take any part in the military action,” President Alexander Lukashenko said at a Belarusian Security Council meeting in Minsk.
“The question is why? Do they not have the same weapons we do? Please, lord. Do they not have enough human resources? Plenty. Combat skills? Plenty. We are still not going to take part in that special operation. Not going to,” he added.
Russian officials have described the invasion of Ukraine as a special military operation.
Reports from Ukraine claimed Belarusian troops had entered the Chernihiv region in northeast Ukraine, near Belarus.
The Ukraine Parliament cited Vitaly Kirilov, a Ukrainian military commander, while Ukrainian outlet UNIAN cited the State Service for Special Communications and Information Protection of Ukraine, but neither Kirilov nor the state service had appeared to promulgate such information.
Residents of villages in the region told UNIAN that they spotted the movement of military equipment seemingly originating from Belarus.
A senior U.S. defense official told reporters on a call that the United States has not confirmed that any Belarusian troops entered Ukraine. “We’ve seen no indication of that,” the official said.
Russia has been utilizing Belarus to open up new fronts in Ukraine, but Belarus has hesitated to get directly involved.
“Russia is being pushed towards a third world war. We should be very reserved and steer clear of it. Because nuclear war is the end of everything,“ Lukashenko, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, said while voting over the weekend. He also suggested Russia would soon win the war but that Belarusian troops could be ready within hours ”if necessary.”
Ukraine’s defense intelligence officials said Tuesday that Russia was preparing “a deliberate provocation” to justify introducing Belarusian troops into the conflict, and that approximately 300 Belarusian tanks were near the Belarus–Ukraine border.
Belarus hosted ceasefire talks but those ended Feb. 28 without a resolution. The sides plan to meet again on March 2.
Lukashenko said that Ukraine must act to end the war.
“These talks could result in stopping the war. But believe me, everything depends on the Ukrainian side. If they don’t listen to what the West and the Americans keep feeding them, the war will stop,” he said.
