MINSK, August 26. /TASS/. The Belarusian Foreign Ministry has not received any requests from Ukraine to withdraw troops from the border between the countries, said Anatoly Glaz, a spokesman for the Belarusian ministry.
"We have not received any such formal requests from the Ukrainian side. We only saw this statement on the Internet. You know, there is a lot of stuff out there. So we would be grateful if someone could explain to us the logic behind such statements. In our opinion, it is a very fanciful one," he said in a statement on the ministry's website.
Perhaps, Glaz suggested, "there is some kind of a cunning game here, designed for domestic consumption or to get applause from the West."
"However, the main point in a game like this is not to outsmart themselves," he said.
"The Ukrainian leadership launches attack drones through the territory of Belarus, and a week later, on the website of its Foreign Ministry, it expresses surprise at the actions of the armed forces that perform the mission to ensure the security of the territory of Belarus and its citizens," the spokesman said. "Our understanding is that this makes total sense. Especially if we take into account the constant provocations on the border from the Ukrainian side, the deployment of a battlegroup of more than 100,000 people, terrorists infiltrating into Belarus, efforts to supply and finance them, the mining of the entire border territory and many other things."
"But you understand that this lies within the domain of classical logic. But we do not know what logic the Ukrainian side goes by," he said.
Situation at the border
On August 25, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry issued a statement alleging that Belarus was making unfriendly moves. It said that according to the Ukrainian intelligence, the Belarusian armed forces, under the guise of exercises, were massing personnel, equipment, tanks, artillery, MLRS and air defense systems in the Gomel Region near Ukraine's northern border.
"Conducting exercises near the border and the Chernobyl nuclear power plant poses threats to Ukraine's national security," the statement said.
It called on Belarusian officials "not to make mistakes that would be tragic for their own country." The statement also urged Belarusians armed forces "to stop unfriendly actions and withdraw troops from the Ukrainian border to a distance that exceeds the range of the fire systems that are in service in Belarus."
However, Belarus is not conducting any drills near the Ukrainian border. On August 10, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said some drones flying from Ukraine in the direction of Russia over his country had been destroyed a day earlier. In connection with that, the Belarusian leader ordered reinforcements to battlegroups stationed on the border with Ukraine. Commander of the Air Force and Air Defense Forces of the Armed Forces of Belarus Andrey Lukyanovich said Minsk had strengthened the southern battlegroup comprising aircraft, anti-aircraft missile troops and radar troops.