Ukraine urged Belarus on Sunday to avoid making any “tragic mistakes” after the country’s government, closely allied with Russia, deployed troops at their shared 1,084-kilometre-long border.
Kyiv claimed Alexander Lukashenko‘s government brought tanks, artillery, air defence systems and engineering equipment to the Gomel region near Ukraine‘s northern border.
Belarusian special forces and mercenaries who were members of late Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Wagner Group were also spotted.
A statement issued by Kyiv urged Belarusian armed forces to “stop unfriendly actions” and withdraw their troops out of range of the border.
It added Ukraine never took and is not going to take “any unfriendly actions against the Belarusian people”, stressing it has no intention to escalate the existing tensions with Minsk, despite its close alliance with the Kremlin.
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However, Ukraine also warned, any violation of its border would be met by “all necessary measures to exercise the right to self-defence”.
Fears the war in Europe launched by Russia could spill over the Belarusian border came after Lukashenko accused Ukraine on August 18 of amassing more than 120,000 troops at the border with Belarus – an allegation Kyiv has denied.
Belarus remains Russia‘s closest ally in Europe. In February 2022, Lukashenko allowed Russian troops to use his nation’s territory as a launchpad for their full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
In the months that followed, Russia was also allowed to station nuclear weapons in Belarus.
Lukashenko, often dubbed in Western media as Europe’s last dictator, is not recognised by the UK, US and EU as the legitimate president of Belarus following allegations of vote-rigging and violent crackdown on protests in 2020.
Several organisations and people in Belarus have been hit by Western sanctions over the years in relation to allegations of human rights violations and electoral fraud.
Now Express.co.uk is asking its readers whether recent tensions at the Ukrainian border and fear of a fresh war should prompt the UK to take new action against Belarus.