Ukraine tells Belarus to pull its army from the border

Kiev urged Minsk to “cease unfriendly actions” and warned that it reserve the right to defend its territory

Belarus has amassed a large number of troops at the border, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said on Sunday, warning Minsk against making “tragic mistakes.” 

Citing intelligence reports, the ministry said that the Belarusian Armed Forces are “concentrating a significant number of personnel,” including tanks and artillery, in the Gomel Region “under the guise of exercises.” 

“The presence of mercenaries of the former Wagner PMC was also recorded,” the ministry said in a statement on its website. It went on to argue that holding drills near the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant “poses a threat to the national security of Ukraine and global security in general.”

The ministry warned Minsk “not to make tragic mistakes” and urged the neighboring country to “cease unfriendly actions and withdraw forces away from Ukraine’s state border to a distance greater than the firing range of Belarus’ systems.”

“Ukraine has never taken and is not going to take any unfriendly actions against the Belarusian people,” the ministry argued, stressing that Ukraine reserves the right to defend itself in case of an attack. 

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Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko earlier accused Kiev of dangerous military buildup, claiming that Kiev had amassed more than 120,000 troops on its northern border.

“Having seen their aggressive policy, we have deployed our troops to certain areas near our border,” Lukashenko said in an interview with the Russian broadcaster VGTRK this month. “I was forced to deploy almost a third of [the Belarusian] army to reinforce the existing forces.” He added that the troops were ready to “defend” Belarus should a war break out.

In early August, Lukashenko said that the air defense forces had shot down several “attack drones” that took off in Ukraine and violated Belarusian airspace.

Minsk has urged Russia and Ukraine to return to the negotiating table, warning that the continuing fighting could lead to “an escalation that would result in Ukraine’s destruction.”

Belarus has a defense pact with Russia and Russian nuclear weapons are stationed on its territory. 

Ukraine launched an incursion into Russia’s Kursk Region on August 6, claiming that it was intending to establish a “buffer zone” on Russian soil. Moscow responded by deploying additional forces to repel the invaders and organizing the evacuation of civilians from the affected areas. President Vladimir Putin had informed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that Ukraine “attempted to strike” the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant.