Ukraine says ready if Belarus joins Russian war effort

Ukraine will be ready if the Belarusian Armed Forces join Russia’s war effort in the country, a spokesman for the Ukrainian State Border Service said on Wednesday.

Belarus, a close ally of Russia, said its military had started large-scale exercises on Wednesday to test its combat readiness and that it posed no threat to its neighbors.

“We do not rule out that the Russian Federation may at some point use the territory of Belarus, the Armed Forces of the Republic of Belarus, against Ukraine,” said Andriy Demchenko, a spokesman for the Ukrainian State Border Service.

“So we are ready,” he said, adding that the border with Belarus had been strengthened since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24.

Russia launched the invasion after carrying out joint exercises with Belarus, which allowed it to bring forces closer to the border with Ukraine.

Areas of Ukraine adjacent to Belarus were attacked by Russia in the initial phase of the invasion, but Russian attacks are now concentrated in the eastern and southeastern regions of Ukraine.

Tension in Moldova

Demchenko said Ukraine had also tightened its border with the Russian-backed Transnistria region, where tensions have been rising since local officials said the site was subject to a series of attacks.

Ukrainian officials expressed concern over the situation in Transnistria, a breakaway region of Moldova, and condemned what was said about Russian attempts to drag the region into Russian war against Ukraine. Moscow also expressed concern and said it was closely following developments in Transnistria.

Kent Logsdon, the US ambassador to Moldova, said on Wednesday that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and what he described as its attempts to redraw the map of Europe at gunpoint were of great concern around the world.

But he told a conference in Moldova that Washington had no evidence that Moscow wanted to extend the war to the country and said Russian President Vladimir Putin would lose the war, Moldovan media reported.