Belarus has continued to build military infrastructure along the Ukrainian border despite no visible troop concentration, Ukraine said.
Speaking on TV on Friday, Andriy Demchenko, the spokesperson for Ukraine’s State Border Service (DPSU), said the new facilities are mostly training grounds or logistics facilities.
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“Activity on the territory of Belarus is visible in terms of the further development of military infrastructure. These are training grounds and places where personnel or equipment can be kept in the future, and these are logistical routes,” he said, as reported by state media Ukrinform.
Demchenko said the facilities are concentrated around Ukraine’s Kyiv and Chernihiv regions, with those in western Ukraine’s Volyn and Rivne regions “less visible.”
Concerns over a potential second front from Belarus – which allowed Russia to use its territory as a launching pad for Russia’s 2022 invasion – have resurfaced in recent months.
Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko said in May that Minsk is preparing for war, with President Volodymyr Zelensky saying Kyiv has evidence that Moscow has tried to drag Minsk into the invasion.
Lukashenko’s rhetoric has changed since Kyiv’s recent deep strike campaign across Russia, telling military graduates on July 6 that Minsk will not join the war.
However, Demchenko said Ukrainian intelligence believes Moscow’s efforts to draw Minsk into the war are continuing.
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“In general, what intelligence units note is that Russia continues to put pressure on Belarus to join the war unleashed by Russia against our country on a larger scale with its own forces,” he said, adding that Minsk is reportedly “trying in every way not to succumb to this pressure.”
Despite mounting logistical challenges from Ukraine’s long- and mid-range strikes across Russia and occupied Ukraine, Russian leader Vladimir Putin has reportedly refused to de-escalate and remains determined to capture Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, according to sources cited by Reuters.
Spectators believe that Russia’s opening a second front via Belarus could thin out some of Ukraine’s defenses.
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