Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko stated on Sunday that Ukraine had positioned over 120,000 soldiers at its border with Belarus, and Minsk had stationed nearly a third of its armed forces along the entire border, according to the Belta state news agency. He did not specify the exact number of troops deployed. Belarus' professional army consists of about 48,000 troops and around 12,000 state border troops, as per the 2022 International Institute for Strategic Studies' Military Balance.
"Given their aggressive policy, we have positioned our military along the entire border at certain points - in case of war, they would serve as a defense," Belta quoted Lukashenko as saying in an interview with Russian state television. Kyiv did not immediately respond to a Reuters' request for comment. On Saturday, Kyiv stated it had observed no signs of a Belarusian troop buildup at the border.
The Belarusian leader, a firm ally of Vladimir Putin, spoke amid a Ukrainian incursion into Russia that commenced on August 6 when thousands of Kyiv's troops breached Russia's western border, causing significant embarrassment to Putin's top military commanders. Belarusian Defence Minister Viktor Khrenin mentioned on Friday that there was a high likelihood of an armed provocation from neighboring Ukraine and that the situation at their shared border "remains tense."
Lukashenko noted that the Belarusian-Ukrainian border is heavily mined "as never before" and that Ukrainian troops would suffer substantial losses if they attempted to cross it.
