Belarus sending troops to Ukraine border over strike threat, says Lukashenko

Putin ally accuses Kyiv of planning Western-backed attack on Belarus

In an ominous development, Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko has ordered troops to deploy with Russian forces near Ukraine in response to what he claimed was a threat from Kyiv and its Western backers.

The longtime ally of Vladimir Putin said he was anticipating an attack that officials in Kyiv were being led to prepare against their neighbour to the north.

“Strikes on the territory of Belarus are not just being discussed in Ukraine today, but are also being planned,” Mr Lukashenko said at a meeting on security, without providing evidence for the assertion.

“Their owners are pushing them to start a war against Belarus to drag us there.

“We have been preparing for this for decades. If necessary, we will respond,” he said, adding that he had spoken to Mr Putin about the situation at a meeting in St Petersburg.

Mr Lukashenko has a history of making baseless claims about the war in Ukraine – he blamed Britain for atrocities uncovered in the Ukrainian city of Bucha after Russian troops fled – but his remarks suggest further escalation of the conflict may follow Russia’s latest wave of airstrikes.

He said he agreed with Mr Putin to deploy a regional military group and had started pulling forces together two days ago, apparently after an attack on Russia’s road and rail bridge to Crimea early on Saturday.

Belarus was warned through unofficial channels that Ukraine planned a “Crimean Bridge 2” attack, he claimed, though he did not give details.

Presidents Lukashenko and Putin meet at the Black Sea resort of Sochi, Russia, on 26 September (AP)

“My answer was simple: ‘Tell the president of Ukraine and the other lunatics: if they touch one metre of our territory then the Crimean bridge will seem to them like a walk in the park’.”

Belarus’s army is about 60,000 strong. Earlier this year, Belarus deployed six battalion-tactical groups, totalling several thousand troops, to the border areas. On Sunday, the head of Belarus’s border guards accused Ukraine of provocations at the border.

Russian forces used Belarus as a staging post for their invasion of Ukraine, sending troops and equipment into northern Ukraine from bases in Belarus.

Meanwhile, Warsaw said on Monday that Poles living in Belarus should leave the country, as relations between the two countries become increasingly tense in part due to the war in Ukraine.

The advice follows a similar recommendation given in September to Poles in Russia.

“We recommend that Polish citizens staying on the territory of the Republic of Belarus leave its territory with available commercial and private means,” the government said in guidance for travellers published on its website.

Relations between Warsaw and Minsk deteriorated in 2021 when Poland accused its eastern neighbour of orchestrating a migrant crisis on its border, and have become even more strained since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.