Ukraine’s state Centre for Strategic Communications has warned that it cannot rule out the possibility that Belarus could join the Russian invasion in the coming hours.
BBC reports say the warning comes after a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko in Moscow, and Ukrainian officials warned that Belarusian troops could be ordered to cross the border on Friday night.
Officials alleged that Putin could order Russian bombers launched from Ukrainian territory to shell targets in Belarus, giving Lukashenko a pretext with which to launch an invasion.
The warning follows reports, which the BBC cannot independently verify, that Russian bombers launched an attack on a southern Belarusian village on Friday afternoon.
Ukraine’s Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said the attack was an attempt to “force the current leadership of Belarus into war against Ukraine”.
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