Towards an extension of the conflict? This Monday, the president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, announced that his country and Russia would deploy joint troops in the context of the conflict in Ukraine.
“Due to the aggravation of the situation on the western borders of the (Russian-Belarussian) Union, we have agreed to deploy a regional grouping of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus,” he said.
“If you want peace, prepare for war,” President Lukashenko said again, stating that “there should be no war on the territory of Belarus.”
Caution
A few minutes earlier, this same leader accused Kyiv of preparing an attack against his country.
“Yesterday, through unofficial channels, we were warned that an attack was being prepared from Ukrainian territory on Belarus,” he said, according to the state news agency Belta, assuring that Ukraine wanted to make “a Crimean bridge number 2”, in reference to the partially destroyed Russian bridge on Saturday.
According to him, he sent a message to the Ukrainian president not to touch with “his dirty paws not even a meter of Belarusian territory.”
Belarus, Russia’s ally in its conflict with Ukraine, has ceded its territory to the Russian army for its offensive against Ukraine, but the Belarusian army has so far not taken part in the fighting on Ukrainian territory. The entry of Belarusian forces into their neighbor would mark a new escalation of the conflict in Ukraine.
Source: BFM TV
