Belarusian Defense Minister orders to deploy troops near Ukraine's border

He said this at a briefing on Saturday, August 10, 2024, the press service of the Belarusian Defense Ministry reports.

"Taking into account the situation in Ukraine and in the Russian Kursk region, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces (Lukashenko - ed.) has given instructions to strengthen the grouping of troops on the Gomel and Mozyr tactical directions in order to respond to any possible provocations. Military units of special operations forces, ground forces, missile forces, including Polonez missile systems and Iskander systems, were ordered to march to the designated areas," Hrenin said.

According to him, the air defense and aviation forces have also been put on alert.

What preceded the decision

The reason for the redeployment of Belarusian troops was a "provocation against the Republic of Belarus" by Ukrainian attack drones that allegedly appeared in the sky over Belarus on the evening of August 10.

Here is the chronology of events as provided by Khrenin:

"At 6:10 p.m., a radio engineering brigade from Ukraine detected a group of targets flying towards the state border of Belarus.

At 6:13 p.m., the air defense forces on duty were put on alert No. 1 to act against a group of targets in the event of a state border violation.

At 6:29 p.m., the regular crews of Su-30SM aircraft and Mi-24 helicopters on combat duty were alerted.

At 6:58 p.m., one of the anti-aircraft missile regiments from the regular forces detected air targets, which were taken under escort and identified as unmanned aerial vehicles.

At 7:04 p.m., the targets were destroyed."

• Belarus' self-proclaimed president Alexander Lukashenko claimed on August 10, that air defense forces shot down attack drones from Ukraine.