Belarus deploys one‑third of its army to confront Ukraine

Alexander Lukashenko, quoted by Reuters, stated that almost one-third of the Belarusian army has been sent to the border with Ukraine. Minsk responded this way to Kyiv sending over 120,000 soldiers to the border with Belarus.

"Seeing their aggressive policy, we have introduced there and placed in certain points," said the Belarusian dictator in an interview for Russian state television, as quoted by Reuters.

He added, "in case of war, they would be defence" for Belarus. Lukashenko emphasized that "the Belarusian-Ukrainian border is mined like never before and that the Ukrainian forces would suffer enormous losses if they tried to cross it."

Lukashenko did not specify exactly how many troops Minsk has deployed along the border with Ukraine. According to Reuters, the Belarusian army consists of about 48,000 soldiers plus about 12,000 soldiers at the state border.

Kyiv, on the other hand, did not respond to Reuters' request for comment.

"We are not seeing any increase in the number of equipment or personnel of Belarusian units near our border," reported Border Guard Service spokesman Andriy Demchenko on Sunday in a comment for the Ukrainian Pravda following the statement by the Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko.