Łukašenka claims West, opposition preparing to invade Belarus

March 31, BPN. Western countries are preparing “to invade the territory of Belarus to destroy our country,” Alaksandr Łukašenka has said in his annual address to the nation and parliament on March 31.

Western politicians are turning Belarusian political emigrants into fighters and bandits and organizing military units for a future coup in Belarus, he claimed. These people are getting their first combat experience in Ukraine but are just used as cannon fodder, he added.

Belarusian political emigrants are not the only ones who plan to destroy Belarus, Łukašenka said. He accused the West of training and sending terrorists to Belarus for sabotage and intimidation, setting up “underground extremist cells to coordinate protest activities,” and smuggling arms and funds to Belarus.

“This is what I warned you about in 2020,” he said. ” They tried everything then and were left with the only option, the military one, to break us.”

Belarus is in danger of being dragged into a war and its neighbors, primarily Poland, are especially eager to do it, Łukašenka claimed. Poland plans to spend about €21 billion, or three percent of its GDP, on military needs in 2023, he said, noting that its military spending is to rise by 70 percent from the 2022 level.

Poland’s military spending may rise to €24 billion and account for more than four percent of its GDP in 2024. “This is twice as much as NATO demanded. Why? Who threatens it, Poland?” he questioned.

Warsaw also plans to increase its armed forces up to 300,000 by 2035, which is almost twice as many personnel as it has now, he noted. Poland aspires to the leading position among the NATO countries in Europe and the United States supports this, Łukašenka stressed.

He cited numbers of equipment to be supplied to the Polish army under recent contracts — 366 Abrams main battle tanks (MBTs), 1,000 South Korean Black Panther MBTs, 900 K9A2 self-propelled artillery systems, 38 HIMARS multiple rocket launchers, 50 Javelin missiles “and 1,500 Borsuk IFVs, which they manufacture themselves.”