«Russia is using all mechanisms of intimidation, including Belarus» — military expert

Belarus has begun sending military equipment to the border with Ukraine. According to the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Belarus, units of one of the mechanized formations are «being put in readiness to perform assigned tasks.»

Military expert Oleksiy Hetman discussed this development on Hromadske Radio.

«There are Russian troops stationed in Belarus, particularly near the Kharkiv and Sumy regions. They concentrated there and attempted an ‘offensive’ similar to the one in the Kharkiv region. However, the operation failed. Our offensive actions in the Kursk region have somewhat disrupted these plans.»

The expert notes that the occupiers are now trying to reinforce their troops in the Kursk region to repel the assault. According to him, there is information about manpower being redeployed from the Kupiansk-Lyman direction and from the Pokrovske direction.

He also points out that these troop movements are quite obvious and predictable.

Regarding Belarus’s statements about sending troops to the border with Ukraine, Hetman comments:

«Following Moscow’s panic in the Kursk region, the Russian Federation has started using all available mechanisms of intimidation, including involving Belarus. It’s difficult to say what they intend to achieve with this. Perhaps they want to force us to divert our troops to the border with Belarus. Their actions now seem very chaotic and barely understandable. They are resorting to extreme measures.»

He adds that Russia had been preparing resources for an offensive in the Sumy region. There were clear signs of preparations for hostilities, such as increased activity by subversive reconnaissance groups and constant shelling of the area.

At the same time, Belarus is unlikely to dare to attack Ukrainian territory, as Ukraine would be able to retaliate.

«Lukashenko understands that after our strike, there would be little left of the Belarusian army.»

Since the time of Prigozhin, Belarus has served as a «training ground for recovery and training.» It has been possible to conduct certain exercises there without worrying about shelling.

The expert notes that the territory of the republic has not been shelled because it is not an active participant in the hostilities in Ukraine, allowing Russians to feel relatively safe there.

Regarding the creation of nuclear weapons storage facilities in Belarus, the expert says:

«According to international law, a country can store nuclear weapons belonging to another country. If Russia moves its weapons to Belarus, the latter would only be able to guard them. All decisions regarding the maintenance and launch of the weapons would still be made by the country that owns them. Theoretically, they could establish a depot in Belarus, but this raises the question: why?»