Border authorities say EU, Ukraine have over 23,000 soldiers near Belarus

January 23, BPN. The neighboring European Union countries and Ukraine have massed about 23,500 soldiers at their border with Belarus, Anatol Łappo, chair of the Belarusian State Border Committee, told Alaksandr Łukašenka.

About 17,200 servicemen are stationed in Ukraine and 3,700 in Poland, he added.

The situation, however, “remains predictable and controllable,” the Border Committee’s press office quoted him as saying. The military buildup in the neighboring EU countries and Ukraine, increased intelligence activities, and attempts by “radicalized individuals” to enter Belarus remain major external challenges to border security, he noted.

The EU countries keep building an “iron curtain” at their borders with Belarus, while Ukraine is also mining certain areas, Łappo said. In early 2023, Belarusian border authorities recorded the emergence of over 980 kilometers of different barriers, including 202 km in Poland, 553 km in Lithuania, 86 km in Latvia and 141 km in Ukraine.

Unmanned aerial vehicles continue active aerial reconnaissance of the Belarusian territories, the official noted. Since the start of Russia’s war on Ukraine, Belarus recorded a total of 463 drone flights along the shared Belarus-Ukraine border.

In 2022, Ukraine carried out 88 “active provocations” at the border, including damaging border infrastructure, insulting Belarusian border guards, and incidents involving weapons, sound equipment, lasers and leaflets, Łappo said.