MINSK, March 7. /TASS/. The sabotage of the Russian A-50 plane at the Machulishchy air base near Minsk and the terrorist act in the Bryansk Region on March 2 were links in the same chain, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Tuesday.
"It was all done for PR purposes. And everything was set up like links in a single chain: we had a terrorist attack in Machulishchy and in the Bryansk Region, when some 40 or more rogues, members of a sabotage and reconnaissance group, came in from Ukrainian territory, shot some civilians, and wounded a child - you know what I’m talking about. These were links in the same chain. To show the West what they are still capable of, because they need the money. And our fugitives (Belarusian opposition figures who fled the country - TASS) were hoping to get funding for this," the BelTA news agency quoted Lukashenko as saying.
The Belarusian president requested that the media tell everything about the sabotage at the air base near Minsk. "Show all of this in detail, show these terrible people plotting in Poland and Ukraine to destroy us," Lukashenko said.
Earlier on Tuesday, Lukashenko announced the detention in Belarus of a Ukrainian secret service agent and his accomplices implicated in the sabotage raid targeting the Russia A-50 aircraft at the Machulishchy air base near Minsk.
In late February, reports circulated about an attack on the Machulishchy military air base, which had purportedly resulted in significant damage to the Russian Aerospace Force’s A-50 airplane. Later, Belarusian TV showed the aircraft in good condition while moving on the runaway and in flight. According to the media, the plane "accompanied" Lukashenko during the Belarusian leader’s return flight from Beijing.