Counter-terrorism operation regime has been imposed on the territory of Belarus, the country’s Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei says in an interview with newspaper Izvestia.
“We see the Ukrainian side say: ‘We are squeaky clean, we are not planning anything on the Belarusian border.’ Unfortunately, today’s world has become so unpredictable that we can’t trust anyone.
This is why we should ensure our own safety, our stance is that, as the President of Belarus has said, we have to protect our own people and make it so the invader’s foot doesn’t take even one step on our land. The leader of our country conducted a series of meetings with security forces, counter-terrorism operation regime was imposed,” Makei said.
12:16PM. Belarussian news agency BelTA, citing Belarus’ State Security Committee (KGB), reports that counter-terrorism operation regime has not been imposed in the country.
“A counter-terrorism operation was not being conducted and is not currently being conducted on the territory of the Republic of Belarus. The information being spread on the Internet is inaccurate,” BelTA’s source in KGB claims.
The source emphasises that “a counter-terrorism operation on the territory of the country is imposed by the State Security Committee”. It is noted that currently only planned exercises are being conducted to “support the high level of preparedness of counter-terrorism actors so they’re able to carry out tasks for the intended purpose”.
12:47PM. Alyaksandar Lukashenka has confirmed the counter-terrorism operation regime being imposed in Belarus, BelTA reports.
“[The regime] has been imposed due to the escalation of the situation near our borders. According to the documents that are stipulated for such cases in the union of Belarus and Russia. It was stipulated a long time ago: in case of a escalation, we will impose this regime of high terrorist risk. This is why we started the procedures of deploying a joint group of forces, the main part of which, as I’ve said, consists of Belarusian army, which is supplemented with Russian units,” he said.
According to him, the decision to impose the regime was made after reports about “plans of provocations connected to pretty much seizure of separate areas of Belarus’ territory [drawn up] by certain, bordering countries”.
Makei did not clarify when the regime had been imposed and until what date it would last.
On 10 October, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarus’ Alyaksandar Lukashenka agreed to deploy a joint regional group of forces. Lukashenka also stated that Ukraine was allegedly planning to strike Belarus and that the Ukrainian army had begun establishing a second front on the Belarusian border.
On 11 October, Ivan Tertel, the head of Belarus’ KGB, accused Ukraine and Western countries of preparing terrorist attacks on the territory of Belarus.
According to Tertel, foreign intelligence agencies “prepared from 100 to 300 militants” in Ukraine to conduct an “armed seizure of a district centre on Belarus’ territory to later use it as base for further development of the offensive operation”.
