MINSK, 18 August (BelTA) - Belarus had to redeploy almost a third of its army to the border with Ukraine, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said in an interview with the Rossiya TV channel, BelTA has learned.
According to the head of state, Ukraine keeps more than 120,000 military near the border with Belarus. “Given their aggressive policy, we have deployed our military at certain points along the border as it would be in case of war. Moreover, there are special services there - special units - Alpha, Almaz and others. These are highly trained specialists. They do their job,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.
The president recalled the additional aggravation of the situation on the border in late June - early July, when preparations for the Independence Day parade in Minsk were underway. At that time, a lot of aircraft and units of ground troops, which participated in the parade, moved to Belarus, including from Russia.
“It is clear that they [in Ukraine] saw this movement towards us. The United States give them all the information. They thought, as they said, that ‘Putin will attack from the territory of Belarus again’. From near Gomel, the way it was at the beginning of the special military operation. They decided to boost their 120,000 military there,” said the head of state. “In response, I had to redeploy almost a third of the army to reinforce the border.”
Aleksandr Lukashenko said that later they managed to discuss the situation through the communication channel they have with the Ukrainian special services: “We asked: “Why are you doing this?” They honestly told us: “You are going to attack us with the Russians from near Gomel.” We had no such goal. They withdrew those additional forces, those over 120,000 military. We also withdrew the additional forces we had brought in.”
“The units that were deployed there two and a half years ago remained there. Military are present both on our side and theirs. We cannot remove our troops from the border with Ukraine. The war is going on,” the president said regarding some talks about the withdrawal of troops.
In August, Belarus was forced to respond to the violation of its airspace by Ukrainian strike drones. “Why did we react harshly to this? Because we are fed up with it already. They constantly violate the eastern part of our border, if they fly to St. Petersburg and further into Russia. Some drones, assembled in Ukraine, fly 3,000-5,000km, they even reached Tatarstan. They crossed our border. We warned them. Of course, our air defense system sees this and immediately transmits information to the Russian air defense forces.”
Aleksandr Lukashenko emphasized that he was forced to respond on all fronts when the drones had actually invaded the Belarusian territory.
“We had to redeploy the Armed Forces and the troops that we had withdrawn. A third of the army was redeployed [to the southern border] and we mobilized the troops in the west and moved them to the south, to the training ground to prepare our units. This was a planned activity. There are also several thousand military there - from the western and north-western directions,” the president said.
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