Ukraine and Belarus have avoided confrontation. In return, the Kremlin has once again addressed harsh words to Europe and the USA.
Surprising relaxation on the border between Ukraine and Russia’s ally Belarus. After a steady build-up of troops on both sides of the border, Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko gave the all-clear during a visit to troops and declared the confrontation to be over. According to the state agency Belta, he referred to the withdrawal of Ukrainian units from the region. “Now we have no complications with the Ukrainians, and I hope there won’t be any,” he was quoted as saying by Belta.
At the same time, Lukashenko announced the withdrawal of units that had been deployed to the Ukrainian-Belarusian border in recent weeks. The Ministry of Defense in Minsk issued the relevant orders to the affected units in the evening. This is being done on the instructions of the president, said Defense Minister Viktor Chrenin. “We will begin to fulfill this task immediately.”
Due to alleged troop build-ups on the Ukrainian side of the common border and alleged provocations, Lukashenko recently reinforced border units. Kiev, however, said that Ukrainian units had merely strengthened the defensive positions along the border.
At the beginning of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine in February 2022, Belarus allowed Russian units to operate from its territory.
The Kremlin, meanwhile, indirectly threatened the West with a harsh response to the planned stationing of long-range US weapons in Europe. “Of course” Moscow would respond to this stationing, said Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov in response to a question from a Russian television journalist. “There has always been a paradoxical situation: the USA has stationed missiles of various ranges and calibers, and traditionally they have always been aimed at our country.” Russia, in turn, has aimed its missiles at targets in Europe.
“Our country is in the crosshairs of American missiles in Europe,” Peskov was quoted as saying by the state agency Tass. “We have been through all this before, it has happened before.” But Russia has the ability to deter these missiles. “But the potential victims are the capitals of these states,” he added threateningly.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian military claimed responsibility for a new attack on a fuel depot in Russia. The depot in the Tsimlyansk district of the Rostov-on-Don region was set on fire by drones, the Ukrainian agency Unian reported, citing informed sources.
Around 12,500 cubic metres of fuel caught fire in the depot. The information could not be independently verified. The Russian side did not provide any information on this.
“The drones of the Ukrainian security service continue their precision attacks against the Russian energy complex, which supports the war against Ukraine,” Unian quoted an unnamed secret service representative as saying. Ukraine has already attacked almost three dozen refineries and fuel depots on Russian territory in recent weeks.
Since Ukraine is not yet allowed to use long-range weapons from Western supplies against targets on Russian territory, drones with lower explosive power are being used against selected targets.
At least four people were killed in a series of Russian attacks on civilian targets in eastern and southern Ukraine. Two people died in an attack on the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson, Ukrainian media reported.
In the Kharkiv region in north-eastern Ukraine, two people were killed and 22 others were injured in Russian attacks, according to military administrator Oleh Synjehubow. The Russian military had fired on a train station and railway facilities there.
