Belarus shoots down Ukrainian drones amid airspace violation
"All machines were shot down," assured the citizens of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko. According to the president, on Friday, August 9th, Ukrainian drones most likely violated Belarusian airspace. At the same time, the local air force was placed in the highest state of readiness.
10:54 AM EDT, August 10, 2024
On Friday, August 9th, the Belarusian Air Force was placed on the highest level of readiness. Alexander Lukashenko said a few Ukrainian drones were expected to appear in Belarusian airspace shortly after 12 PM Eastern Time. These were immediately shot down, thereby eliminating any threat.
Yesterday at 12:10 PM Eastern Time, the Belarusian air force was placed on high alert. We call this readiness number one. These are the air defense forces on duty. The fact is that (we suspect not for the first time), the Armed Forces of Ukraine violated all the rules and entered Belarusian airspace. This happened in the east, quite close to us, near the Kostiukovichi region - said Lukashenko, through the Belarusian news agency BelTA.
At the same time, Lukashenko informed that services are searching for the remains of the shot-down drones. Those that the Belarusian air defenses failed to shoot down were handed over to the Russians. According to Lukashenko, the attack's primary target was Smolensk, but when confronted with Russian-Belarusian resistance, it was changed to the nearby city of Yaroslavl.
Lukashenko talks about Ukrainian provocation and mentions Kursk
According to Lukashenko, this was another provocation by the Ukrainian side, which aimed to attack Russia later. Alexander Lukashenko also mentioned the Kursk region, where an unofficial Ukrainian offensive is ongoing. As the Belarusian president revealed, trenches are currently being dug in this region, confirming the difficult situation for the Russians.
The Ukrainians, as I have repeatedly warned, with such actions show that they are not ready for peace. They are striving for escalation. Two days ago, there was an attack near Kursk. They are digging trenches there. This is a provocation with an attempt to strike at Russia [...] I believe that this provocation will be widely discussed in the media. I am informing about what happened to avoid later insinuations - said Lukashenko.
Despite such a decisive declaration from Lukashenko, Belarus has not presented any evidence to support these accusations.
