Łukašenka demands vigilance at western borders

January 23, Pozirk. Alaksandar Łukašenka has approved state border security measures for 2024, his press office reports.

This year’s “priority efforts” will focus on identifying and combating “challenges and threats to the national interests of Belarus,” implementing visa waiver for Belarus’ Western neighbors and improving border infrastructure, it stressed.

The measures are special because of the “war [raging] in the south, while Poland, Lithuania and the Baltic states in the west are even worse,” Łukašenka said, accusing the neighbors of training militants.

He claimed that Belarusian investigators have identified “the fighters of these units,” who are “ready to fight against their own country.”

Belarusian troops should keep an eye on Lithuania, which uses adjacent territories for deploying military units from the United States and Germany and conducting drills, Łukašenka said.

He seized the opportunity to criticize Poland’s border fence as ineffective against illegal migrants.

“We cannot snooze . . . We must not allow any accidental developments at our border. Therefore, vigilance and once again vigilance,” the Belarusian ruler stressed.

He credited those present – Security Council Chairman Alaksandar Valfovič, Defense Minister Viktar Chrenin, General Staff Chief Viktar Hulevič and Kanstancin Mołastaŭ of the State Border Committee – with doing a good job to secure the border.

Poland “conducts daily aerial reconnaissance and patrols along the state border,” Mołastaŭ reported, noting that the situation “remains consistently tense, yet predictable and under control.”