Ukraine on Thursday said it is ramping up security in regions bordering Belarus after warning for weeks of a possible fresh attack launched from the territory of Russia’s chief regional ally.
Kyiv has sounded the alarm that Russia may use Belarus — a springboard for its 2022 invasion of Ukraine — to stage a new offensive from the north, including towards the capital.
Ukraine’s Security Service said its units and the army were ‘carrying out a comprehensive set of enhanced security measures in the northern regions of our country’.
The measures — including stepped up checks of individuals and properties — ‘will serve as an effective deterrent to any aggressive actions or operations by the enemy and its ally’, the SBU said in a statement.
The Kremlin on Monday dismissed Ukraine’s allegations as ‘an attempt at further incitement’.
Russia and Belarus began joint nuclear drills this week involving thousands of troops, planes and strategic missile forces, with the two sides rehearsing the ‘commanding’ of strategic nuclear weapons on Thursday, according to Russian president Vladimir Putin.
Amid the exercises, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said Wednesday that his country was ‘preparing responses to every possible course of enemy action — if the Russians do indeed dare to expand their aggression’.
Zelensky pledged to strengthen fortifications along the border in his evening address on Thursday.
Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko said Thursday that his country posed ‘no threat to anyone’, but that Belarus was ready to defend Russia in ‘every possible way’, without elaborating.
Ukrainian military expert Sergiy Zgurets said that a fresh offensive from Belarus was unlikely, given the political risks for Minsk, adding that Ukraine had substantially fortified its northern border since 2022.
‘I would tend to see this more as pre-emptive informational measures on the Ukrainian side,’ he said.
Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, with the war having spiralled into Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II.
