Lukashenko announces detention of "Ukrainian terrorist" involved in damaging Russian A-50 aircraft in Machulishchy

BelTA reported the information.

"The Security Service of Ukraine and the CIA leadership are either working from the side or behind the back to develop an operation against the Republic of Belarus. A terrorist has been trained. He is a Russian with both a Russian and a Ukrainian passport. He was born in Kryvyi Rih, has lived in Crimea. Some of his relatives are in Austria, some stayed in Kyiv. He was recruited by the Ukrainian secret service in 2014. An IT specialist or someone who is well versed in IT technologies. He was preparing to commit terrorist acts," Lukashenko said.

He said that the highest technologies were allegedly used to train the saboteur.

"He (the detainee - ed.) has been training for months. After the training, he was routed (as the KGB says) to our territory," the self-proclaimed president of Belarus said.

Lukashenko also noted that the "terrorist" allegedly had accomplices.

Advisor to the head of the Ukrainian Presidential Office, Mykhailo Podolyak, reacted to Lukashenko's statement and said that the attack on the A-50 was an "anti-terrorist act carried out by local partisans."

"We need to decide on definitions. A terrorist attack is when missiles are launched from the territory of Belarus at Ukrainian cities. Sabotage is when subversive groups enter from the Belarusian border. The strike on the A-50 surveillance aircraft is an anti-terrorist act, carried out, by the way, by local partisans," he wrote.

• On the morning of February 26, 2 explosions occurred at the Machulishchy military airfield near Minsk, which put a Russian A-50 reconnaissance UAV out of service.