Opinions & Interviews
Lukashenko about state border defense: No red lines, the response will be instant
MINSK, 15 August (BelTA) – If the state border is violated, the response will be instant. Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko made the statement in an interview with the TV channel Rossiya on 15 August, BelTA has learned.
One of the questions focused on the uncouth statement made by the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in response to the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding the violation of Belarus’ airspace by drones. Ukrainian officials responded by saying that there is nothing to talk about and that it is not something worth thinking about.
Aleksandr Lukashenko remarked that the obnoxious behavior has been going on since the days of the Studio Kvartal 95 [a television entertainment company co-founded by Vladimir Zelensky]. “Real diplomats do not indulge in such things even if there is ‘nothing to talk about’. Secondly… Diplomats constantly speak things other than those on their minds. There is something to talk about.”
The head of state said that after the incident involving the drones and after statements and actions on the part of the Belarusian side Ukraine responded: “We received signals right away from those, who do politics responsibly, and from Ukrainian military. They showed concern: what, how…”
The president pointed out that all of it was going on while additional measures to guard the state border were being implemented. “They redeployed additional units towards our border when they saw that we are deploying the relevant units at the border. They [these units] occupied their positions, which we had defined a long time before. I am in favor of taking every precaution. When the time comes, every unit, every company, every battalion has to occupy their own assigned position,” Aleksandr Lukashenko explained.
In his words, brigades and battalion tactical groups had been chosen in Belarus for operating in the vicinity of the Belarusian-Ukrainian state border. More than 20 of them are supposed to be there. “Every group knows what terrain, territory and so on they need to occupy. It is mandatory for the sake of preventing a breakthrough. This is why we did it,” the president clarified.
“And they [on the Ukrainian side] saw it. They and westerners kept constantly telling us that they don’t need a war with Belarus. We understand it and say that we are not going to fight against you,” the head of state said. He explained that there are no aggressive intentions not because there are good people on the other side but because Belarus and Russia are not interested in expanding the line of combat operations. “The entire border is about 1,200km long. At present the frontline of the special military operation is about 1,000km. Are we ready to cover 1,200km? No. And Kursk demonstrated that. We would have to organize mobilization [if events unfolded according to that scenario]. This is what the West wants from us and primarily from Russia in order to stir up the society from within. This is why we are not ready for it. We don’t want that,” the Belarusian leader noted.
Aleksandr Lukashenko said: “We don’t want escalation and we don’t want a war against the entire NATO. We don’t want that. But if they do it and if they go ahead with it, well… We will have no other way out. And there will be no ‘red lines’. There is one red line: the state border. Once you step on it (I say it as a border guard), the response will be instant. It has been prepared as orders in safes as it should be.”
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