Opinions & Interviews
Lukashenko promises immediate response to any encroachment upon Belarus’ territory
MINSK, 31 March (BelTA) – Any encroachment upon the sovereign territory of Belarus, its military and civil infrastructure will be met with an immediate response. Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko made the statement in his Address to the nation and the parliament on 31 March, BelTA has learned.
Aleksandr Lukashenko said: “We are ready for any turn of events. Once again I’d like to calm down everyone, who worries about peace and security in our country: don’t be afraid of anything, everything will be fine. We will defend peace as best as we can instead of destroying it. Any encroachment upon the sovereign territory of Belarus, our military and civil infrastructure will be met with an immediate response. We will respond and we will respond all the way.”
The president reminded that all the defense, security, and law enforcement agencies had been instructed to preserve peace in Belarusian land whatever the cost and the task is being fulfilled. Air defense duty units have been operating in reinforced mode for over a year now. Units in charge of defending the border have been reinforced. Police and the KGB work together to carry out counterintelligence measures and ensure public security in the territory near the border.
“In order to prevent possible provocations on the part of blatant Ukrainian nationalists, some of the special operations forces and other units of the Belarusian army have been redeployed to the south in order to cover the state border,” the head of state stressed.
Aleksandr Lukashenko remarked that this work at the border has been in progress for a long time. It is not the first time the army has practiced responding to a possible turn of events. “We try to forestall things. Why do you complain about me if you not simply rattle sabers but kill people in the kindred country of Ukraine instead of the West? If you wage a war to the ‘last Ukrainian’? And nobody has asked this Ukrainian if he wants to fight to the last Ukrainian,” the president said.
The western border is also under constant control. Defenses of the territories bordering on Poland and Lithuania have been reinforced, the head of state pointed out. Except Belarus has not closed the border from its neighbors. Moreover, Belarus offers a visa-free travel program to citizens of these countries. “Don’t worry we see who comes and who leaves,” Aleksandr Lukashenko assured.
The head of state recalled the famous saying by the Roman military historian and theorist Publius Flavius: “If you want peace, prepare for war”. But few know, the president noted, that the phrase has a continuation: “If you want victory, you have to diligently train warriors and prepare weapons.”
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