President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that equipment had been installed in Belarus on the border with Ukraine, which the Russian military is using to direct attacks on Ukraine, and called on Alexander Lukashenko to remove this equipment within a week.
“No need for further explanation. There are repeaters on his (Lukashenko – ed.) transmission masts. On his territory, along the two regions bordering Ukraine, there is equipment that directs fire at our people. Let him remove this equipment. I think a week will be enough for him to do this. Because right now, every day, our civilians are dying and children are being wounded because of this. “If he does not do this, we will,” said Zelenskyy on 19 June during a press conference alongside the President of Honduras, Nasri Asfour.
The President of Ukraine also accused Belarus of supplying petroleum products to the Russian army. “We are doing everything we can to ensure that the ‘Russians’ are unable to sell oil or supply diesel and petrol to their army. Belarus is currently one of the main suppliers to the Russian army. Can this be stopped? I am confident that he has the power to do so. And it is precisely he who is in control,” said Zelenskyy.
Zelenskyy warned that Russia continues to incite Belarus to wage war and is using provocations, in particular drone attacks, to drag the Belarusian people into the conflict. The President of Ukraine also described the attack on a bus carrying Belarusian children in the Bryansk region of the Russian Federation on 17 June as “a provocation by Russia”.
“As for the drone strike on the bus carrying Belarusian children, everyone has already acknowledged – including international experts and, I believe, the ‘Russians’ themselves – that it was not our strike. The ‘Russians’ will carry out many different provocations in order to drag the people of Belarus into this war. This is one of them,” said Zelenskyy.
Lukashenko has not yet commented on the Ukrainian president’s statements. On 15 June, the Belarusian authoritarian leader apologised to the Ukrainian president for his harsh remarks and once again gave assurances that there would be no attack from Belarus.
At the same time, he acknowledged that Belarus is “very vulnerable militarily if Ukraine were to attack Belarus in the same way it is attacking Russia”.
According to Lukashenko, Belarus is “as clear as day” to the Ukrainian military – and this is one of the reasons why the country does not want to be involved in the war.
“We understand perfectly well that our key infrastructure – production and logistics – will come under attack. As they have stated, they have already identified 500 such targets on Belarusian territory,” said Lukashenko.
He reiterated that the Ukrainian people and military have nothing to fear from Belarus, as this would not be in anyone’s interests.
Earlier, the Ukrainian military stated that they had already identified 500 targets in Belarus in the event of the country entering the war. At the time, the Belarusian authoritarian leader threatened to strike a single “very serious” target in Ukraine, and suggested that Zelenskyy had “messed up somewhere, put his foot in it somewhere”.
Russia and its ally Belarus conducted nuclear exercises on 19–21 May against the backdrop of an escalation in drone attacks on Russia. Belarus, which borders NATO’s eastern flank, is also home to the ‘Oreshnik’ – Russia’s latest missile system capable of carrying nuclear weapons.
On 19 May, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Oleksandr Syrskyi, commenting on the threat posed by Russia via Belarus, stated that potential operations in the north were a real possibility.
Following these statements, Alexander Lukashenko said that Minsk “will not be drawn into” Russia’s war against Ukraine, but on one condition – provided it does not constitute an act of aggression against Belarusian territory.