Belarus Joins The War - However, according to the media, the secret mobilization has begun under the guise of testing the military capabilities and capabilities of the troops. Currently, this may include support staff and targeted men in small towns and villages.
Belarusian soldiers have been told that travel abroad is prohibited. "At the moment, I am ready to go to war with the Russians from the territory of Belarus in only one case: if soldiers from there come to kill my people. If they attack Belarus, the revenge would be the most cruel. And the war would take on a completely different character," he said. Russia continued its brutal bombing of Ukrainian infrastructure on Thursday.
Belarus Joins The War
Source: www.atlanticcouncil.org
with dozens of missiles, which the Ukrainian Air Force said included 12 Kh-22 ballistic missiles that are virtually impossible for Ukrainians to intercept with air defenses.Until Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February, Belarus had been mired in the same darkly repetitive chain of events for more than two decades: Lukashenka's improbable election victory followed by peaceful street protests
Popular Unrest
and then violent repression with Russian support.With the structures of Belarusian civil society crumbling and protesters and opposition leaders in prison or abroad, the likelihood of immediate civil unrest if Lukashenka announces mobilization or sends Belarusian troops
d to Ukraine to fight, to be small. Officials say they routinely shoot down small objects that Russia may be using for espionage, but which appear to be mainly decoys designed to divert Ukrainian military attention and munitions away from more important targets.
The White House is launching state-level battles over women's reproductive rights, offering legal advice and communications advice to allies in states pushing for restrictions, as the Biden administration seeks to make abortion access a rallying cry in next year's presidential election.
According to a senior Ukrainian intelligence official, the Belarusian fighters integrated into the Ukrainian International Legion are symbolically important, but there were fewer of them than Kabanchuk claimed. Another Belarusian armed group, Pahonia, also fights in Ukraine, but is even smaller.
Source: nypost.com
Activating The Union State Defence Doctrine
Russia's recent annexation of four Ukrainian regions by Russia has narrowed Lukashenko's room for maneuver in response to Russian demands to assist in the war effort. The Kremlin can now essentially claim that Ukraine's counteroffensive in the occupied Donbass and Kherson regions is an attack on the Russian-Belarusian federation, an agreement between the two countries that provides for close political and economic integration.
Major General Ruslan Kosygin of the Belarusian Defense Forces pointed to military exercises in Poland and "attempts by individual Polish politicians to start the return of so-called native Polish lands" as signs that the US was about to begin.
conflict against Russia. "We have two goals. We help to defend Ukraine against Russia, but we also promote the liberation of Belarus itself from Lukashenka," said Vadim Kabantchuk, deputy commander of the Kalinouski regiment of the volunteer force assisting Ukraine, which, according to him, includes nearly 500 mainly Belarusian fighters. "In the event of a conflict
is Polish territory with its military infrastructure as the primary object of attack, namely decision centers, elements of the command system, permanent positions of the national armed forces, arsenals and bases, as well as critical targets.
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economy and transportation infrastructure," he added. The Neman River flows through Lithuania and eventually empties into the Baltic Sea, while the Berezina joins the Dnipro River about 40 miles north of the Ukrainian border. The exercises would not directly approach the Belarus-Ukraine border, which is about 670 miles long. "The enemy
is waging a terrorist war against people who use these missiles, which are very destructive. And they're not accurate," Ihnat said, adding that Kh-22 missiles often miss their targets by as much as a third of a mile, or about three blocks. Lukashenka, who is said to be Putin's closest ally among world leaders, emphasized Russia's war. — and military
Source: cloudfront-us-east-2.images.arcpublishing.com
failures — created difficulties for its regional neighbors. Other countries, such as Kazakhstan, have been flooded with Russians fleeing conscription, trying to avoid becoming embroiled in Moscow's battle with the West, which has imposed a series of tough sanctions to destabilize Russia's war machine. Ukrainian officials say the 79-year-old became
a woman was killed and at least seven people were injured in an attack in Pavlohrad, a city on the eastern side of the Dnieper River and Donetsk region. Infrastructure in the western Donetsk region was damaged in the city of Lviv, but there were no injuries. The authorities in Kyiv have warned in recent weeks that Russia may attack again from Belarus, possibly
that from Western Ukraine to try to stop the US and other NATO countries de sent arms shipments. Opinion polls in Belarus are limited, but recent surveys of foreign think tanks have found growing dissatisfaction with the Lukashenko administration and ambivalence among Belarusians about their country's deepening relationship with Russia.
However, Belarusians cannot do anything to change Lukashenka's dependence on Putin. In addition, Lukashenko said that according to the laws of the country, he can declare mobilization in the event of a threat of war. "It is written in the documents, they are not secret. If we feel the threat of war, we mobilize. So far, there is no such threat," he stressed.
"These arrests and detentions, accompanied by unlawful use of force causing grievous bodily harm and injury, followed by torture and ill-treatment, including rape, were widespread and served to pressure the population, suppress dissent and public opposition to the current president," the report said.
Franak Viacorka, Tihanovskaya's senior adviser, hailed the members of Kalinouski's regiment as "brave men and women" and said they risked their lives and health because they understood that if Ukraine wins, Belarus has a chance for change.
Source: i.ytimg.com
” As a result, diplomatic relations between Belarus and the United States have become strained. The government of Belarus denied US Ambassador Julie Fisher a visa in 2020 and ordered an increase in the staffing of the US Embassy in Minsk in 2021.
Currently, Belarus does not have an ambassador in Washington. With mass arrests in Belarus quieted after the 2020 protests, Lukashenka's exiled and often fragmented opponents have a new spring, believing that Russia is now unwittingly helping their cause by pushing the Belarusian leader into a dangerous corner.
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Lukashenko said in October that Russian troops would return in large numbers, and in recent weeks, drones have been sent from Belarus to attack Ukraine's energy infrastructure and other targets. In addition, Russian forces have supplied military equipment from Belarus to their forces in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine.
The move marks a significant escalation of Belarus' role in the war so far. This shows that Lukashenka is preparing the Belarusian public – which has been strongly opposed to the deployment of Belarusian armed forces to fight in Ukraine since the beginning of the conflict – while seeking a formal, if unrealistic, justification for greater Belarusian involvement in the conflict.
This could undermine Lukashenko's already low public support and destabilize his administration. If the troops were sent to the border or to fight in Ukraine, the President of Belarus would not have a properly trained and equipped army to protect him in Minsk.
Source: media.cnn.com
After all, a number of Belarusian military units had to be mobilized in 2020 to help contain the mass protests. Western officials are wary of signing deals with Lukashenka, whose commitments have proven unreliable in the past — for example, when the EU welcomed an ostensibly liberated Belarus into the bloc's democracy-focused Eastern Partnership in 2009, Lukashenka faced an arrest warrant in 2010.
violent dispersal of political opponents and tens of thousands of demonstrators. Lukashenko's government has faced Western sanctions since August 2020, when he claimed to have won a new term in elections widely seen as fraudulent. Belarus depends heavily on Russia for economic and security aid, but Lukashenko has so far shown an unwillingness to sacrifice his soldiers to help Putin achieve his goals, including the illegal annexation of four Ukrainian regions.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov (left) shakes hands with Russian negotiators during the Russian invasion of Ukraine in the Brest region of Belarus on March 3, ahead of talks by the country's delegations. Maxim Gucheck/BELTA/AFP hide caption via Getty Images Ever since Russia suffered repeated battlefield defeats and heavy losses that required reinforcements and an unpopular military mobilization, Lukashenko never offered to send troops to war, despite growing military cooperation between Moscow and Minsk, including
in exercises. , which led to an increase in the number of Russians. Troops stationed in Belarus. Military experts say sending Belarusian troops to Ukraine is highly unlikely, partly because it would be highly unpopular at home, but they say Belarusian President Alexander G. Lukashenka could give the impression of combat readiness to force Ukraine to divert troops away from another country.
in front. Instead, Lukashenka and other Belarusian officials were said to have aided Moscow's push to recommend that Belarus join the war directly to try to push Ukrainian forces down its northern border. Currently, the Belarusian army has about 65,000 soldiers, of which about 20,000 are auxiliary personnel and cadets.
That means about 45,000 regular troops. However, their combat readiness may not be so high, because only a part of the existing forces serve in peacetime. Veteran Belarusian Foreign Minister Vladimir V. Makei said in an interview published by the Russian newspaper Izvestija on Friday that after the meetings between Lukashenka and his security officials, an "anti-terrorist operational system" has been created to guard the entire country.
. against "provocations". A few hours later, the state news agency Belta rejected the accusations, citing the K.G.B., and said no such special system existed.
