Belarus increases border defenses and sends a diplomat after charging Ukraine with violating airspace

On Saturday, Belarus dispatched more troops to bolster its border with Ukraine, claiming that during Kyiv’s military invasion into Russia’s Kursk region, Ukrainian drones had breached its airspace.

The charge d’affaires of Ukraine was called by Belarus’ Foreign Ministry, which also stated that a recurrence of the event would force Belarus to reevaluate whether Kyiv’s diplomatic presence in Minsk was “appropriate.”

Speaking at a conference in eastern Belarus, President Alexander Lukashenko stated that on Friday, three of “about a dozen” Ukrainian drones that had breached Belarusian airspace in the Mogilev area that borders Russia were destroyed by air defense troops.

According to Lukashenko, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, other ones were later destroyed close to Yaroslavl.

“Why Ukraine had to do this is beyond me. We need to investigate it,” he was reported by the BelTA news agency as saying. “But we have…made ourselves clear and conveyed to them that any provocation will not go unanswered.”

Belarus1, the official television channel, aired images purportedly showing pieces of downed drones.

In remarks that were also posted on BelTA, the Belarusian Foreign Ministry stated that Minsk was demanding “comprehensive measures” to make sure that such situations didn’t happen again.

“It was pointed out…that if Ukraine’s diplomatic representation in Belarus cannot have an effect on preventing such provocations, the Belarusian side will raise the issue of the appropriateness of its continued presence in Minsk.”

A request for comment was not immediately answered by the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry.

“An attempt to help Putin and divert the attention of Ukraine’s command to this sector” is what Andriy Kovalenko, the head of the state-run Center for Countering Disinformation in Ukraine, stated in a Telegram post.

Six drones were intercepted by Russian forces in the Yaroslavl region earlier on Saturday, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.

“Considering the situation in Ukraine and in the Kursk region of Russia, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces has given orders to reinforce troops in the Gomel and Mozyr tactical areas in order to respond to such provocations,” Viktor Khrenin, the defense minister, stated.

“Special operations forces, ground troops and rocket forces, including Polonez and Iskander systems, have been tasked with deploying to the designated areas.”

According to him, Belarus “was ready to respond” and saw the breach of its airspace as provocative.