(Reuters) – Ukraine’s border guard service said on Thursday that Kyiv had seen no signs of Belarusian troop or military hardware movements near their shared border since Minsk announced it was sending additional forces to the area.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Sunday the country had deployed nearly a third of its armed forces along the border, claiming that Kyiv had stationed more than 120,000 troops there.
“We do not see any movement directly near our border – neither equipment nor personnel,” Andriy Demchenko, Ukraine’s border guard service spokesman, told national television.
He added that the situation near the Belarus border “generally has not changed”.
On Monday, Andrei Lukyanovich, commander of Belarus’ air defence, said its forces near the border had been “significantly increased”. Aviation, anti-aircraft missile forces and radio-technical troops had been deployed, he added.
Days after Ukraine’s surprise Aug. 6 incursion into Russia’s territory, Lukashenko – a loyal ally of President Vladimir Putin – suggested, without providing evidence, that Kyiv could have designs on attacking Belarus.
Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and now holds about 18% of its territory in the east and south. Belarus shares a border with northwest Ukraine.
(Reporting by Yuliia Dysa; editing by Bernadette Baum and Mark Heinrich)
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