MINSK, 2 July (BelTA) – Terrorist sleeper cells, so-called self-defense formations have been detected in Belarus. Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko made the statement at a solemn assembly held on 2 July in anticipation of Independence Day, BelTA has learned.
Aleksandr Lukashenko said: “Terrorist sleeper cells, so-called self-defense formations have been detected today. These cells intend to overthrow the government at a specified date. They don't know what date yet: our nation and, as they believe, our state have yet to accept it.”
According to the head of state, Lithuania, Poland, the USA, Ukraine, and Germany acted as coordinators. A Telegram channel was created under the name “Belarus' self-defense formations”. It had about 2,500 subscribers. “It was their combat reserve. We know their faces. The chat's owner is Mr de Hoffmann, a German citizen, who was previously a citizen of Russia and Ukraine. Mr Dudnikov, a Russian citizen, is the main moderator of this production,” the president said.
Aleksandr Lukashenko said that virtually the other day these forces tried to destroy a large number of forest-harvesting machines in state forestry enterprises. “Ms N. Matveyeva volunteered for this strike. She was intercepted by [the KGB's] Alpha team, arrested, and is now giving testimony. We will release the testimony soon,” he promised. “What did they intend to do? Set a column of vehicles on fire at night, upload it to the Internet and demonstrate: look, we are alive, we are fighting, and we will bring down this regime. She was caught on 8 June. The attempt failed.”
According to Aleksandr Lukashenko, these “self-defense formations” also tried to blow up a communications node of the Russian navy in the Belarusian town of Vileika. Some incident in this area was reported by mass media recently but it was unclear what had happened. Aleksandr Lukashenko discussed the event during the latest phone conversation with President of Russia Vladimir Putin. “We also discussed this problem most seriously. You understand the result of this discussion,” Aleksandr Lukashenko added. “All the participants of the terrorist attack, including those who did it and those who organized it, were found and arrested within 48 hours.”
The head of state mentioned the last names of those arrested: Gulevich, Ashurak, Glotov, Gospodarev. They wanted to flee to Ukraine and Lithuania but the attempts failed.
“The Alpha team and other ones, who caught them, did great,” Aleksandr Lukashenko thanked law enforcement personnel.
Aleksandr Lukashenko also mentioned how a flying drone was intercepted at the Belarusian-Lithuanian border a week ago. According to the head of state, a gasoline can with explosives was attached to the drone, the explosives were defused. He assured that this episode will be made public soon, too.
“I honestly said that we will no longer stop those you've been treating like dirt in Afghanistan, Iran, and Iraq. We don't have money or strength for it as a result of your sanctions. And you have to understand that nobody knows what happens in Lithuania and at the border, it is just a fact. One can recall many facts like this but I will say one thing: I gave instructions to cover all these episodes in mass media in detail and instructed law enforcement bodies to, roughly speaking, clean up the entire country. They've crossed the line. We cannot forgive that,” he stressed. Aleksandr Lukashenko also instructed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to summon heads of the diplomatic missions of the above-mentioned countries and demand an extradition of the criminals. “All the facts are documented and we will prove their guilt. We don't even have to prove it: they will talk about it on their own. And you will see their true face: the face of Germans, Americans, Poles, and Lithuanians,” he added.
BelTA reported earlier that during a state award ceremony held in the Palace of Independence on 2 July Aleksandr Lukashenko noted that a large-scale antiterrorist operation had been finished in the country. “We finished a large-scale antiterrorist operation today. It seemed to us they would try to choke us by economic means. No. A campaign of terror against people and facilities continues on a larger scale inside the country,” the president said.
“After wrapping up counterintelligence activities today, we will raise questions not with some Heiko Maas, the German minister of foreign affairs, but with the chancellor herself and some other top officials of Germany. I will tell you more later,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.
