Belarus sends more troops and aircraft to its border with Ukraine

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Belarus has deployed aircraft and air defense troops to its border with Ukraine, a day after President Alexander Lukashenko announced he would station almost a third of the country’s military along the frontier.

The Belarusian military also deployed anti-aircraft missiles and soldiers from the country’s radio-technical corps, Maj. Gen. Andrey Lukyanovich, commander of the Belarusian Air Defense Forces, said on national television, describing the move as a significant increase.

Belarus’ authoritarian leader, Lukashenko, on Sunday announced that he’d ordered almost a third of the army to the border with Ukraine. Although he did not specify troop numbers, Belarus’ army numbers about 60,000.

Lukashenko said the decision was in response to additional Ukrainian troops being deployed along the border, but that could not be independently verified.

Ukraine has not confirmed the Belarusian deployment to the 1,084-kilometer common border.

Russia has used Belarus — which depends on Russian loans and cheap energy — as a staging ground for its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, moving its troops through Belarusian territory to attack Ukraine from the north. Russia also moved some of its tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus in 2023.

Lukashenko on Sunday also called for negotiations between Russia and Ukraine but said Kyiv’s current incursion into Russia’s Kursk region prevented talks. He described the “escalation” as an attempt to provoke Moscow.