Events

MINSK, 20 March (BelTA) – Attempts have been made to aggravate the situation in Belarus, President Alexander Lukashenko said as he received the report on the preparations for the Belarus-Russia joint strategic army exercise West 2017 on 20 March, BelTA has learned.

“Recent events have raised our concerns and shown that we shout stay on the lookout,” the head of state said.

“I cannot say that there are too many problems in this regard, that there is a certain confrontation between our Belarusian-Russian group and the units of the North Atlantic Alliance which, obviously, has become more active today, is deploying additional forces near our borders. Frankly speaking, it concerns us to a lesser degree,” the President remarked. “We are more concerned about the attempts to apply modern methods of confrontation to aggravate the situation in Belarus and to carry out corresponding activities against it.”

“This pertains to the attempt of our ‘fifth column’ with the financial assistance (we can trace it, I do not threaten anyone), of western funds and with the guidance of western intelligence services to encourage our roughnecks, who have run away from the country abroad, to destabilize the situation in Belarus,” Alexander Lukashenko explained.

“We will cope with this. It is not a problem,” the Belarusian leader emphasized.

He also mentioned the attempts to violate the state border. These include the attempts to transport weapons and other dangerous items and materials. “For example, today’s incident on the Belarusian-Ukrainian border when our border guards had to use arms. There were the cases on the western border connected with some powder-filled shells (the investigation is underway),” Alexander Lukashenko said.

Radioactive materials were detected on board the plane flying from Armenia to one of the European countries through Belarus.

“Please inform me about the results of the investigation into the incidents that happened on the state border today,” the President said.

“All that shows that we should stay on the lookout. We must keep our eyes open and keep the situation in our country stable,” the head of state concluded.