MINSK, January 15 Belarus is ready for any provocative actions with on the part of Ukraine, said First Deputy Secretary of State of the Security Council of the Republic Pavel Muraveiko in an interview with the STV channel.
«Today we are ready to stop any provocation and any terrorist threat, no matter where it comes from, and which can cause any damage to our state, people, to our people on the ground,» he said.
According to the official, Minsk sees all the actions, including «inadequate» ones, that the formations created in Ukraine are taking.
«They are shooting towards our border, violating border signs, provoking in every possible way. There is a dialogue through the border authorities, but, unfortunately, it does not always give positive results. We talked through the military line — also does not give any results yet,» Muraveiko said.
He assessed the situation on the border with Ukraine as «not very calm», but noted that Belarus has the necessary means to protect its territory from any aggression. Thus, the deputy state secretary of the Security Council of the republic recalled the training of the response system to terrorist attacks that took place at the end of last year.
«It was a fairly large-scale event, where all law enforcement agencies were involved. <…> The commanders of all units objectively and clearly understand all the tasks assigned to them and the level of responsibility for the security of the country and the protection of those communications, which can be attacked. They have clear action algorithms. And the fighters of the units are ready to work out certain issues to automatism,» Muraveiko summed up.
On Thursday Ukrainian Ambassador to London Vadym Prystaiko said that the Armed Forces of Ukraine withdrew part of the troops towards the Belarusian border. At the same time, a day earlier, Vladimir Zelensky noted that he now does not see an immediate threat from the northern neighbor, but called on the army to be ready for various scenarios.
Back in October last year, the State Border Committee (SBC) of Belarus reported that The Ukrainian military continues to mine the border areas. At the same time, the Russian-Belarusian regional grouping of troops began to carry out tasks to protect the Union State.
According to Alexander Lukashenko, its creation was caused by the aggravation of the situation on the western borders, the buildup of NATO forces in Poland and the Baltic states. Ukrainian Defense Minister Alexei Reznikov then accused Moscow and Minsk of preparing an attack from the Belarusian direction. As emphasized by the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, the purpose of this statement is to beg the West for more money and weapons.