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Belarus has begun verifying its citizens’ eligibility for military service, the country’s Defense Ministry said, amid developing considerations about a new imaginable attack by Russian forces from Belarusian territory. Vladimir Putin used the Belarusian border to launch Russia’s northwestern offensive on Ukraine in February.
Belarus’ strongman, Alexander Lukashenko, is a loyal best friend of the Kremlin and has maintained its control since 1994.
On Wednesday, Minsk’s Defense Ministry said assessing citizens’ eligibility for military service involved mobilization.
It said in a statement: “Military registration and enlistment activities are strictly regime and will end until the end of this year. “
Lukashenko said early last week that he had deployed troops in a joint force with the Russian armed forces near the Ukrainian border.
He said Minsk thought Kyiv posed a risk to Belarus’ national security and had spoken to Putin about the issue.
The Belarusian leader stated on October 10: “Attacks on the territory of Belarus are only being discussed today in Ukraine, but they are also planned. “
He provided some evidence on this point, according to Reuters.
He added: “Their owners are pressuring them to start a war against Belarus to drag us there. “
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Lukashenko, the former Soviet country, had been “preparing for decades” and would “respond” if “necessary. “
The first convoy of Russian infantrymen arrived in Belarus five days later, but the Belarusian Defense Ministry said the troops were “intended exclusively for the covering and defense of the border. “
About 9,000 Russian troops have been deployed on the border between Belarus and Ukraine.
But the move has raised fears that Putin hopes to launch a new offensive on Ukraine from Belarusian territory after a series of high-profile setbacks in the south and Ukraine.
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Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, the exiled Belarusian opposition leader who is one of Lukashenko’s top vocal critics, warned that “Lukashenko and Putin are dragging Belarus into a full-scale war against Ukraine. “
Speaking to NBC last week, Lukashenko insisted that he would not deploy Belarusian forces directly to Ukraine, but that Minsk was completely the Kremlin in the conflict.
He said: “We Russia in every possible way. Our lies in the fact that our western borders with Poland and Lithuania have not been violated, so Russian troops have not been stabbed in the back through Belarus. “
“It’s been like that from the beginning. “
He then claimed that Belarus had played a role in repairing wounded Russian soldiers, as well as receiving Ukrainian refugees.
Lukashenko added: “But we are not killing there, and we are not making plans to kill there. No one is asking us to do that. “
But the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said Tuesday that the “secret mobilization of the armed forces of Belarus continues under the guise of educational sessions. “
In a message on its Facebook account, the Kyiv General Staff added: “According to available information, measures are being taken to exercise operators of anti-aircraft missile systems and tank crews. “