war preparations? – Lukashenko: Ukrainian attacks repulsed

Date:

Since the war started in Ukraine in late February, there have been repeated reports from Kiev that the Kremlin’s closest ally, Vladimir Putin, Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko, is preparing to invade the neighboring country. Now the Belarusian president himself has fueled these speculations. “We are being provoked,” Lukashenko said on Saturday, according to state news agency Belta, accusing the Ukrainian army of carrying out rocket attacks on Belarus.

Three days ago, the Ukrainian army tried to attack military installations in Belarus, but the missiles were all intercepted, Lukashenko said. The Belarusian president made the statement during a celebration of his country’s national day. He made serious accusations against Ukraine and the West. “Western Europe first raised a monster called fascist Germany and is now breeding a new monster in Ukraine,” he tried to make a historical analogy.

Belarusians practice building pontoon bridges
Lukashenko is a close ally of Russia, which justified its February raid on Ukraine by allegedly “denazifying” the country. At the beginning of the war, the ruler allowed Russian invading forces to advance through Belarusian territory towards the Ukrainian capital Kiev. According to news agency Ukrinform, the construction of pontoon bridges is now being practiced in the border regions of Brest and Gomel. However, initially there are no signs of the formation of offensive troops. Meanwhile, the mayor of the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, Andriy Sadovy, said Belarus was preparing for an “escalation”. In particular, there are fears that an invasion by Belarusian forces could cut supply routes between Lviv and the Polish border.

The situation in Belarus is also followed with particular interest with regard to the security of NATO countries in the Baltic States. The Russian Baltic Sea exclave of Kaliningrad is separated from Belarus only by a narrow corridor, the so-called Suwalki Gap, which is also the only land link between the Baltic states and the rest of NATO territory. Any attempt by Russia to establish a land link with Kaliningrad through its ally Belarus would bring about the collapse of the alliance and thus NATO’s intervention in the war.

According to British estimates, Russia is increasingly using inaccurate missiles in Ukraine. The reason is likely because stocks of modern, accurate weapons are dwindling, according to the Ministry of Defense in London. Surveillance images show that the shopping center in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk was most likely hit by a Ch-32 missile. It is a further development of the Soviet missile Ch-22, which is still not optimized to hit ground targets accurately. At least 20 people were killed in Monday’s attack in Kremenchuk. According to the Russian army, it hit numerous military targets in air strikes. Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov claimed Ukraine had suffered “heavy losses of people and equipment”.

Separatists: ‘Lysychansk completely surrounded’
Pro-Russian fighters in Ukraine say they have completely surrounded the disputed city of Lysychansk in the east of the country. Together with Russian troops, “the last strategic hills” were conquered today, a representative of the separatists told Russia’s Tass news agency on Saturday. “With this we can report that Lysychansk is completely surrounded.” The Ukrainian army rejected a complete encirclement of Lysychansk. There is heavy fighting around the city in the Luhansk region, a Ukrainian army spokesman said on television on Saturday. Lysychansk was “not surrounded and still under the control of the Ukrainian army”.

Source: Krone

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Share post:

Subscribe

Popular

More like this
Related