Kremlin says Ukraine’s alleged reinforcement on the border with Belarus is worrying

The Kremlin said on Monday (1) that a Belarusian military report that Ukraine was moving more troops, weapons and military equipment into the northern Zhytomyr region, which borders Belarus, was cause for concern.

Belarus’ Defense Ministry claimed that Ukraine was reinforcing its forces on Saturday.

A spokesman for Ukraine’s border guard service said on Monday that such statements were part of a Russian-backed “information operation” and that Kiev had kept forces near the border with Belarus to avoid any provocations.

When asked about the allegation of troop build-ups in Belarus, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reminded reporters on Monday that the country was part of a “union state” with Russia and that dialogue between Moscow and Minsk, including among its intelligence agencies, was nearby.

“And our defense ministries are in constant contact with each other. Of course, this is a cause for concern not only for Minsk, but also for Moscow, because we are in fact allies and partners.”

Peskov said Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko would attend a Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit to be held in Kazakhstan on July 3 and 4 and would discuss the issue if they considered it necessary.

Belarus, a close ally of Russia that has provided support for what Moscow calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine, said last week it was reinforcing its border with Ukraine after a security incident and had deployed a division of multiple launch rocket systems to test combat readiness.

Belarus’s border guard service said its forces shot down a quadcopter on Wednesday after it illegally crossed the Ukrainian border to collect information about the region’s infrastructure.

Earlier last week, the border service said materials for a homemade bomb had been found hidden in the same area and that it was aware that a unit of pro-Ukraine Russian fighters was present in a Ukrainian region bordering Belarus.

Source: CNN Brasil

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