You're reading: Belarusian Security Council: Situation in Ukraine prompts Belarus to reinforce its border

The measures being taken by Belarus to reinforce its border with Ukraine have been prompted by the negative situation in the neighboring country and are not directed against Ukraine's civilian population, Stanislav Zas, acting secretary of the Belarusian Security Council, told the ONT television station on Aug. 2 evening.

“We have closely been following the events taking place in Ukraine. The tendencies there are still negative. We need to reinforce our borders and maintain public order in order to prevent the same from happening in our country,” Zas said.

A great deal has been done in the past two years to better equip the Belarusian-Ukrainian border, he said.

“This includes demarcation, boosting our forces’ presence in this area, as well as the engineer equipment of this section,” he said.

Obviously, the system of gradual border reinforcement has been functioning “quite effectively”, he said.

Belarus has taken note of the “developments in Ukraine: the spread of weapons and ammunition, including in regions and districts that border our country,” Zas said.

He also said that steps to beef up security along the Belarusian-Ukrainian border are not directed against the civilian population and should not affect normal interaction between representatives of the two countries.

“The work that we are conducting today on the border does not mean that we are building a wall to separate ourselves from the fraternal Ukrainian people. Existing border checkpoints are being perfected,” he said.

In June, Belarus assessed the effectiveness of the operations of the state border protection system at the southern sector and the territorial defense system. It focused mainly on issues concerning the need to gradually reinforce the state border.