MINSK, February 6. /TASS/. The intensity of foreign military aviation flights near the borders of Belarus has doubled compared to late 2022 reaching 140 incidents a week, Deputy Commander of the Belarusian air and air defense forces, Anatoly Bulavko, said on Monday.

"Regrettably, we cannot say that there is a downward trend in the number of combat and reconnaissance flights. Moreover, the number of such flights has increased dramatically," he said in an interview with the STV television channel. "Whereas there used to be 30, 50, and even up to 70 sorties (of foreign warplanes near the republic’s border in a week - TASS), at present, last week, there were 140 such flights," he revealed.

Minsk has repeatedly stressed that Poland and the Baltic countries were reinforcing their national armies and NATO units. Deputy Chief for Combat Management of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Belarus, Major-General Valery Gnilozub, said that NATO units deployed in Poland and in the Baltic republics could serve as a basis for forming assault forces against Russia and Belarus.