Belarusian helicopters that cross Polish airspace are guarding Lukashenko - Belarusian Hajun

This was reported by the monitoring group Belarusian Hajun.

Lukashenko in Viskuli

According to the report, since the evening of July 30, Lukashenko has been staying at the Viskuli residence, 7.5 km from the border with Poland. To protect him, two air force helicopters were deployed to the border with Poland on July 29 from Machulishchi, and the third arrived the next day.

"On July 29, at about 17:00, two helicopters of the Belarusian Air Force took off from Machulishchy to the area of the military base near the village of Kamenyuki: Mi-8 and Mi-24 (with tail number 14). They arrived in Kamenyuki around 18:30. The helicopters arrived there to protect the airspace of Belarus during Lukashenko's visit to the Viskuli residence. It should be noted that this is part of the standard procedure in recent years, the same was the case in April this year," the statement said.

The monitoring group notes that on July 30, at around 17:00, Lukashenko took off from his residence near Minsk in an Mi-8 helicopter, accompanied by a second Mi-8 of the Belarusian Air Force. After about 1.5 hours, the dictator arrived at the Viskuli residence, 7.5 km from the Polish border, and the escort helicopter went to join the other two helicopters near the village of Kamenyuki. And on July 31, Lukashenko stayed in Viskuli all day.

But on August 1, the same helicopters flew to patrol the border in the Kamenets district of Brest region.

"Lukashenko's helicopter took off from Viskuli at around 10:00 a.m. and headed to the Bialowieza, where he was accompanied by an Mi-8 of the Belarusian Air Force. Around 12:30, Lukashenko returned to Viskuli, and all 3 helicopters of the Belarusian Air Force landed in Kamenyuki," Hajun said.

Crossing the border with Poland could have happened by accident - Belarusian Hajun

The first reports that two helicopters of the Belarusian Air Force had crossed the border with Poland began to arrive around 10:30 a.m. Minsk time. At that time, Mi-8 and Mi-24 were patrolling the border. 

"Later, photos appeared showing that these were the helicopters that participated in patrolling the border with Poland. On the Mi-24 of the Belarusian Air Force, you can see the tail number 14. We were able to check one of the photos and confirm that it was taken in the village of Bialowieza, 2.3 km from the border. This is also confirmed by Twitter users. We should also note that the media is spreading a video of a Mi-2 helicopter that has nothing to do with the Belarusian Air Force, presumably a Polish helicopter," the statement said.

"Hajun claims that no exercises were conducted in the border area with Poland: "the helicopters had nothing to do with any exercises, but were flying to protect Lukashenko."

According to the monitoring group, the pilots of the Belarusian Air Force could well have flown into Poland. The group concluded that this was done by accident.

"A deliberate provocation with two combat helicopters crossing the border would be an extremely dangerous step, given that Lukashenko is only +-10 km away, and 7.5 km from the border he has been spending the night for several days, including right now," they added.

How Belarusian helicopters violated Polish airspace

On August 1, the Polish Ministry of Defense confirmed that two Belarusian helicopters had violated Polish airspace near Bialowieza, allegedly during a training exercise.

NATO was informed about the incident. The Polish Foreign Ministry was also supposed to summon the charge d'affaires of Belarus for explanations.

Instead, the Belarusian Ministry of Defense denied the Polish side's claims, saying that Warsaw needed the allegations of violation of Polish airspace to "justify the build-up of forces and equipment near the Belarusian border."