Belarus pulling troops toward Ukraine’s border

On August 10, the Minister of Defense of Belarus, Viktor Khrenin, said at an unscheduled briefing Aleksandr Lukashenko had ordered that the grouping of troops in the Gomel and Mazyr tactical axes be strengthened.

This is reported by the Belarusian service of Radio Liberty, Ukrinform reports.

According to the minister, the groupings of troops will be strengthened "to respond to any possible provocation."

"Military units from the special operations forces, ground forces, missile forces, including those with the Polyanez jet artillery systems and the Iskander systems, were tasked with deploying in the designated areas. We have also increased the anti-aircraft missile capabilities, e-warfare, and aviation," he said.

As Khrenin noted, the decision was made in the wake of the alleged violation of the Belarusian airspace by drones from the territory of Ukraine, which was first reported by Aleksandr Lukashenko. According to the official, on August 9, the Air Force on combat duty detected "unidentified aerial objects moving from the territory of Ukraine", and after crossing the Belarusian border, they were "classified as unmanned aerial vehicles", after which some of them were intercepted.

"We are closely monitoring the situation and are ready to respond to any changes," Viktor Khrenin said.

Earlier, Lukashenko claimed that Friday night, the air force and air fefense units of Belarus were put on high alert in connection with the violation of the airspace in the Kastyukovitsa area. According to Lukashenko, at 19:04 local time, air defense forces allegedly destroyed several targets over the territory of Belarus, and the rest were destroyed by Russian forces near Yaroslavl.

"The search for what has been destroyed continued throughout the night and into this morning. We suspect these were attack drones," Lukashenko said.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, in July, at least nine Shahed kamikaze drones Russia regularly launches at Ukraine breached Belarus’s airspace.