Belarus sends five battalions of tactical groups to border with Ukraine.

Viktar Hulevich, chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces and First Deputy Defense Minister of Belarus, said that five battalion tactical groups are now serving on the Belarusian-Ukrainian border jointly with the border guards, Belsat reports.
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Belarus denies plans to join Russian invasion but is 'rotating' troops at the border (Picture source: Ukrinform)

According to Viktar Hulevich, chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces and First Deputy Defense Minister of Belarus, it is done “to prevent the penetration of various nationalist armed groups, illegal delivery of weapons, ammunition, and explosives into the territory of the Republic of Belarus from Ukraine. They “carry out tasks of reconnaissance, patrolling, protection of facilities and protection on the roads. Soon, we plan to replace them also with five battalions of tactical groups”, said the chief of the General Staff. At the same time, he said, the units that have fulfilled their tasks “will return to their permanent deployment places and begin planned daily activities.”

Hulevich emphasized that “the movement of troops is in no way connected with the preparation, let alone participation of the Belarusian military in a special military operation in Ukraine”. Belarus indeed denies plans to join Russian invasion but is 'rotating' troops at the border, Inna Sovsun reports in the Jerusalem Post: Belarus has no plans to join the Russian invasion of Ukraine but is sending five battalion tactical groups (BTGs) to its border on rotation to replace forces already stationed there.

A top Ukrainian security official on Friday, March 11, warned Belarus not to send troops to Ukraine, saying Ukraine was showing restraint towards Belarus despite the country being used as a launchpad for Russian planes. Ukraine is showing restraint towards Belarus but will fight back if Belarusian soldiers cross the border to join the Russian invasion, Ukraine's top security official Oleksiy Danilov said on Friday.

Ukraine's military has accused Russian aircraft of firing at Belarusian border villages from Ukrainian air space on Friday to provide an excuse for an offensive: "This is a provocation! The goal is to involve the Armed Forces of the Republic of Belarus in the war with Ukraine!" its Air Force Command said in an online statement. Ukrainian senior officials said Russia was doing everything possible to draw Belarus into the conflict, after failing in what Western countries say was an initial plan for a lightning assault on the capital.

Russian forces plan to fire on Belarus from the territory of Ukraine in order to draw the Moscow ally into the war, Minister of Defense of Ukraine Oleksiy Reznikov warned on Friday, March 11 afternoon.

Russia might also use chemical weapons in Ukraine in a "false flag" attack to retroactively justify its invasion, a Western official said, but adding that there is nothing to suggest broader use of such weapons in the war.

Also, cluster bombs are made up of a hollow shell that explodes in mid-air, dispersing dozens or even hundreds of smaller 'bomblets' over a wide area. Russia is not a party to a 2008 convention banning cluster munitions although it is bound by international humanitarian law, particularly the prohibition against indiscriminate attacks. "Due to their wide-area effects, the use of cluster munitions in populated areas is incompatible with the international humanitarian law principles governing the conduct of hostilities," UN spokesperson Liz Throssell told Geneva-based journalists. "We remind the Russian authorities that directing attacks against civilians and civilian objects, as well as so-called area bombardment in towns and villages and other forms of indiscriminate attacks, are prohibited under international law and may amount to war crimes."

Belarus won’t join Russian operation in Ukraine

According to TASS on March 15, Belarus won’t take part in Russia’s military operation in Ukraine, Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko said at a meeting with army commanders and security agencies on Tuesday: “I want to emphasize it once again: We are not going to get involved in this operation that Russia is conducting in Ukraine. There is no need for it,” he said and explained that Russia has sufficient forces in Ukraine. “Can we give something to Russia from the perspective of weapons? No. We buy all this from the Russian Federation. They have everything and even better. That’s why we have no business there. And no one is telling us to go there,” the president said. “Our task is to prevent an attack from behind on advancing troops, the Russian ones. We must never allow it,” he stressed.