Belarus has claimed they have shot down “aerial targets” which were intercepted after being fired from Ukraine.
Belarus is moving troops to the Ukrainian border and the Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has warned that the incident “will not go unanswered.”
Russia’s ally said that Ukrainian drones entered Belarus on Friday night and Minsk has called the incident as a “provocation.”
Speaking to the Balta News Agency, Lukashenko said, “I do not understand why Ukraine needs this. We need to figure it out. As I said before, we made it clear to them that any provocations will not go unanswered.”
The Belarusian ministry said in a statement, “At 18:29, the duty crews of Su-30SM aircraft and Mi-24 helicopters on combat duty were raised. At 18:58, one of the anti-aircraft missile regiments from the duty forces detected aerial targets, which were taken for tracking and identified as unmanned aerial vehicles.
“At 19:04, the targets were destroyed. Aircraft located outside the airspace of the Republic of Belarus were transferred for tracking to the air defence forces and means of the Russian Federation and were also destroyed.”
Belarus has called Ukraine’s invasion of the Russia a “provocation,” the Belarusian Ministry of Defence said, “Considering the situation developing in Ukraine, as well as in the Kursk region of Russia, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces gave instructions to strengthen the group of troops in the Gomel and Mozyr tactical directions in order to respond to any possible provocations.
“Military units of the special operations forces, ground forces, and missile forces, including the Polonez rocket systems and Iskander complexes, were tasked with marching to designated areas.
“The forces and means of the anti-aircraft missile forces, radiotechnical troops and aviation have also been built up. We are closely monitoring the situation and are ready to respond to any changes.”
