Belarus, a key Russian ally, is ready to respond to perceived “provocations” by neighboring Ukraine, a leading Belarusian official has said.
The warning was made days after Belarus beefed up its air defenses along its border with Ukraine with the stated aim of protecting “critical infrastructure facilities.”
In a June 29 statement, the Belarusian Defense Ministry attributed the move to what it said was increased Ukrainian drone activity along the 674-mile border.
It went on to allege that it had information that Kyiv was sending troops and equipment to Ukraine’s northwestern Zhytomyr region, which borders Belarusian territory.
The ministry further claimed that its air defenses had downed a quadrocopter drone on June 28, which, it said, had illegally entered Belarusian airspace from Ukraine.
According to Minsk, the downed Ukrainian drone had sought to “collect information on Belarusian border infrastructure.”
Ukrainian officials have dismissed the allegations.
“It’s not the first time Belarus offers information portraying Ukraine as a threat in order to strengthen itself,” Andriy Demchenko, a spokesman for Ukraine’s Border Guard, said in televised remarks on July 1.
He stated Minsk’s claims were part of an “information operation” conducted by Belarus “with Russian support.”
Mr. Demchenko said, however, that Kyiv had recently sent engineers to the border, where it continues to maintain normal troop levels.
The Epoch Times couldn’t independently verify claims made by either side.
Moscow Takes Note
While Kyiv dismissed claims about Ukrainian troop movements as disinformation, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the reports were a “cause for concern for both Minsk and Moscow.”“And our defense ministries remain in constant contact,” he said.
Since 1999, the two former Soviet republics have been bound by a “Union State” treaty, which aims to cement bilateral ties in the political, security, and economic realms.
The two countries currently share a security structure that includes a joint regional force and a jointly run air defense system.
Belarus is also a member of two Moscow-led regional blocs: the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Collective Security Treaty Organization. It’s also on track to become a full-fledged member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a bloc of Eurasian states founded by Moscow and Beijing in 2001.
On July 3 and 4, Kazakhstan will host an annual SCO summit, which Mr. Lukashenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin are both slated to attend.
When asked if the two leaders planned to discuss recent border tensions between Belarus and Ukraine at the summit, Mr. Peksov said, “If they deem it necessary.”
On July 2, Mr. Lukashenko said he and his Russian counterpart had “much to discuss” at the summit.
New Iron Curtain?
Since Russia launched its invasion of eastern Ukraine in February 2022, military cooperation between Moscow and Minsk has ramped up exponentially.In late 2022, Moscow dispatched thousands of troops—and substantial amounts of military hardware—to Belarus.
Soon afterward, Minsk announced that Russian-supplied Iskander and S-400 missile systems were up and running on Belarusian territory.
Early last year, Belarus made international headlines after Moscow announced plans to station nuclear weapons at Belarusian military facilities. Mr. Lukashenko later confirmed that an unspecified number of Russian nuclear weapons had already been transferred to Belarusian territory.
Despite the increasingly close military alliance, Belarus has yet to play an active role in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
Mr. Lukashenko has repeatedly said he has no intention to send Belarusian forces into Ukraine to fight alongside Russian troops.
“Building a defense infrastructure system ... will address the urgent need to secure the EU from military and hybrid threats,” the leaders of the four EU member states said in a joint statement.
The term “hybrid warfare” refers to combining conventional, irregular, and cyber warfare—both overt and covert—to achieve military or political objectives.
