Belarus appoints Russian commanders to force participate in a war
According to the Ukrainian authorities, Russian commanders have been appointed in the Belarusian army to quell the resistance of Belarusian soldiers to the war against Ukraine.
Source: Centre for Strategic Communications and Information Security at the Ministry of Culture
Quote: "In some parts of the Brest region, riots are taking place - servicemen, including officers, express their unwillingness to take part in the war against Ukraine. To stabilise the situation, lower-ranking and senior officers appointed to positions in the Belarusian Armed Forces have begun arriving from Russia."
Details: According to the Ukrainian authorities, the general psychological state was affected by the decree of the self-proclaimed President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko on the reserve troops mobilisation.
Despite attempts by government propaganda to portray the decision as planned, Belarusians subject to the decree are considering temporarily leave the country until Russia's war against Ukraine is over.
Background:
- Ukrainian military and officials expected Belarus to join the Russian armed aggression in Ukraine by 9 pm on March 11. On March 12, the Belarusian Defence Ministry announced that it was transferring 5 battalion tactical groups to the border with Ukraine.
- The Command of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported that at 2:30 pm on March 11, Russian planes took off from a Belarusian airfield, flew into Ukrainian airspace over the Rivne region, turned around and fired on villages near Ukraine's border with Belarus. A few minutes before the release of this information to the general public, Defence Minister Alexei Reznikov addressed Belarusians and urged them not to believe the provocations of the Russian aggressor and to prevent the involvement of the Belarusian army against Ukraine.
- The Belarus Ministry of Defence reacted that the missile strike on villages on the border between Belarus and Ukraine is a "fake".
- On March 11, Lukashenko held official talks with Putin in Moscow. The Belarusian dictator told his counterpart that the Ukrainian army allegedly planned an attack on Belarus, so he thanked Russia for launching the invasion and preventing the alleged "bloody massacre." Putin, on the other hand, promised to talk about "positive developments" in the Russian delegation's talks with Ukraine. After Lukashenko's meeting in Moscow, his spokeswoman announced that Russia was supplying modern military equipment to Belarus.
- Ukrainian intelligence and the General Staff of the Armed Forces have repeatedly reported that Belarus is preparing to join the Russian occupation forces in the war against Ukraine. At the same time, the Belarusian military allegedly conducted an anonymous survey of servicemen, and most of them expressed an utter reluctance to fight Ukraine.
