Only hours after the President of Belarus refused to allow his country to enter Ukraine, Ukrainian authorities claim that Belarusian soldiers are in the country.
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– Belarusian soldiers are in the Chernihiv region, the parliament writes the Verkhovna Rada Twitter.
Just hours before, the Belarussian president refused to allow the country to enter Ukraine.
– The Belarusian army is not participating in the military action. We can prove this to everyone. Russia has not even raised this with us. We have no plans to participate in the special operation in Ukraine in the future. There is no need for this, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko told state media on Tuesday, according to BBC.
–The fear in recent days has been that Belarusian forces will join the fight to take over Kyiv.
In addition, Western countries and Ukraine are strongly critical of Russia’s use of Belarusian territory to launch the invasion. On Monday, the Belarusians said yes in a referendum to change the constitution so that nuclear weapons can be placed on the country’s territory.
The referendum led to demonstrations in several cities and over 200 were arrestedaccording to Reuters.
A spokesman for the US State Department, Ned Price, said on Monday that Russia had ridiculed Belarus’s sovereignty by launching an invasion of Ukraine from Belarus.
Lieutenant Colonel Palle Ydstebø, an expert on ground invasions at the War School, believes that the Belarusian contribution will have little to say for the battles on the ground.
“Belarus does not have forces that are on a par with what Russia itself has, nor can they compete with the Ukrainian defense,” says Ydstebø.
– I do not think they affect the outcome, and that they will be given guard and security assignments for the advance, which will free a number of Russian soldiers.
At the same time, it shows that Lukashenko has become Putin’s nod doll, Ydstebø believes.
– Another clear knee-jerk reaction to Moscow.
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