Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko says Kyiv has stationed greater than 120,000 troopers alongside its border with Belarus, the nation’s state information company reported, as combating continues amid Ukraine’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk area.
Lukashenko, a staunch ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, mentioned on Sunday that Minsk had deployed almost a 3rd of its armed forces alongside all the border in response to the Ukrainian deployment, BelTA reported. Kyiv didn’t instantly reply to the claims.
“Seeing their aggressive coverage, we’ve got launched there and positioned in sure factors – in case of warfare, they might be defence – our navy alongside all the border,” BelTA quoted Lukashenko as saying in an interview with Russian state tv.
Lukashenko is “delivering some very critical threats to officers in Kyiv”, mentioned Al Jazeera’s Dorsa Jabbari, reporting from Moscow.
The president made it clear that ought to Ukraine attempt to enter Belarusian soil, they are going to be on the offensive, Jabbari added.
Lukashenko didn’t say precisely what number of Belarusian troopers had been deployed. Belarus’s skilled military has about 48,000 troopers and a few 12,000 state border personnel, based on The Army Steadiness 2022 evaluation of the Worldwide Institute for Strategic Research.
Ongoing assaults
The feedback come in opposition to the backdrop of a Ukrainian incursion into Russia that started on August 6, when 1000’s of Kyiv’s troopers smashed by way of Russia’s western border into the Kursk region in a serious embarrassment for Putin’s navy high brass.
Ukrainian forces on Sunday mentioned they struck one other bridge within the Kursk area, searching for to disrupt Moscow’s fight operations within the space.
Earlier on Sunday, Ukrainian drones attacked an oil storage facility in Russia’s southern Rostov area, sparking a big gas fireplace, the regional governor confirmed.
“Within the south-east of the Rostov area, air defences repelled a drone assault. On account of falling particles on the territory of business storage amenities in Proletarsk, a diesel gas fireplace broke out,” Governor Vasily Golubev mentioned on Telegram. No accidents had been reported and a second drone assault shortly afterwards, he mentioned.
The Russian Ministry of Defence mentioned its navy shot down 5 “aircraft-type” Ukrainian drones in a single day, together with two over the Rostov area.
Ukrainian forces in the meantime mentioned they thwarted a Russian missile assault on the capital, Kyiv, the place air raid sirens sounded earlier than daybreak on Sunday.
“That is the third ballistic missile assault on the capital in August with a transparent interval of six days between every assault,” the Kyiv Metropolis Army Administration posted on Telegram after the early morning barrage.
Simultaneous to the missile assault, drones had been noticed heading to Kyiv.
“All enemy drones had been destroyed far outdoors the town,” it added.
No injury or casualties had been reported from the assault, which the administration mentioned had “most definitely used North Korean ballistic missiles of the KN-23 kind”.
America and South Korea have accused North Korea of offering ammunition and missiles to Russia for its warfare in Ukraine.
North Korea on Sunday condemned Ukraine’s incursion into Russia as an unforgivable act of terror backed by Washington and the West, including it can all the time stand with Russia because it seeks to guard its sovereignty. The US’s “anti-Russia coverage” was bringing the world nearer to World Warfare III, state media reported.
Zaporizhzhia nuclear energy plant
Elsewhere, the United Nations nuclear watchdog warned that the security scenario at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear energy plant is “deteriorating” following a drone strike close by.
The Worldwide Atomic Power Company (IAEA) warned on Saturday of an escalation within the safety risks on the plant, reporting “intense” navy exercise over the previous week within the space, together with very near the plant.
“I stay extraordinarily involved and reiterate my name for max restraint from all sides,” IAEA head Rafael Grossi mentioned within the assertion, including the “nuclear security scenario” on the plant was “deteriorating”.
On Saturday, Russia accused Ukraine of dropping an explosive cost on a highway close to the occupied plant in southern Ukraine. The plant, seized by Russian forces early within the warfare, has come below repeated assaults that each side have accused one another of finishing up.
IAEA consultants on web site reported that the injury “appeared to have been brought on by a drone geared up with an explosive payload”, affecting the highway between the plant’s two essential gates.
“We’re not clear whether or not the drone was concentrating on the nuclear energy plant itself,” mentioned Al Jazeera’s Alex Gatapolous, reporting from Kyiv.
“Nevertheless it got here shut sufficient to an influence line. These energy strains run by way of the plant and supply it with the emergency vitality that it could want to have the ability to shut down in case of any accident,” he defined.
“The eye on Zaporizhzhia appears to have come, whether or not coincidentally or not, as Ukrainian forces are solely a number of dozen kilometres away from the Kursk nuclear energy plant in Russia,” Gatapolous added.
