News & Events in Belarus

Lukashenko: No more tensions at Belarus' border with Ukraine

LUNINETS DISTRICT, 13 July (BelTA) – The tensions at the border with Ukraine have subsided following the recent escalation that Belarus had to respond to, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said at the meeting to discuss the country's military security in the southern operational district on 13 July, BelTA has learned.

“The State Security Committee and the military intelligence reported to me that after we had taken action, the Ukrainians withdrew their armed forces and additional troops from our border (there were many thousands of people there) and overall from the Belarus-Ukraine border area. In other words, those troops that were meant to enhance their military presence left the border,” said the head of state.

“If this is so... And this is exactly so. I asked the guys and this regiment [the president visited the 56th anti-aircraft missile regiment in Luninets District]. Both the defense minister and they say that now we have no tensions with the Ukrainians, and I hope there won’t be any,” added Aleksandr Lukashenko.

The head of state emphasized that Belarus did not want this escalation, and it absolutely does not need it now. “Ukraine is even less interested in this. They have enough of other problems,” he noted.

The president recalled that a serious escalation at the southern border was detected a couple of weeks ago. And this caused serious concern among the population, so the head of state had to respond. Aleksandr Lukashenko commented on this after his protocol speech at the meeting in the run-up to Independence Day.

“I tried to the best of my ability to assuage people's concerns, to reassure  people that there will be no war, that we will not allow escalation on our border. After all, it is our task, the task of people in uniform, to make sure that the situation is calm and our people can keep working and harvesting (the harvest is rather good). In other words, people were very anxious. Therefore, a decision was made to dispatch a number of military units to the border, including our special operations forces. Our border guards were mobilized and the border security was beefed up. Although they, poor guys, are already seriously overloaded; nevertheless, the country should be protected - border guards are the only ones who walk along the edges of the country, so the border security was reinforced by the border troops,” the president said.

Speaking about additional mobilization of the special operations forces, Aleksandr Lukashenko noted that the situation was already quite tense: “They are having a tough time at this southern border. The 'sling arms' command is given every other day.”

“Thus, we got mobilized, and our troops were also put on alert,” the head of state remarked.

The resulting de-escalation suggests that the head of state’s promise that the military would ensure peace and security was fulfilled. “I promised the people that we would handle this situation,” the Belarusian leader added.

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