No troops in Belarus for 24 February-style offensive- Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council

Kateryna Tyshchenko — Friday, 17 June 2022, 23:16

Oleksii Danilov, Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council, states that there is no such concentration of troops in Belarus as of 24 February.

Source: Danilov in an interview with NV Radio

Quote from Danilov: "We have information about what is happening in Belarus today. As of today, we do not see such threats (regarding an invasion - ed.) because there are not enough forces and equipment to launch an offensive like that of 24 February. 

Belarus does not have the concentration of Russian troops that there was on 24 February. When our [Ukrainian] troops drove the ruscists out of here and they fled through Belarus, they did not stay there. The vast majority were redeployed to the Donetsk, Luhansk and Kharkiv fronts. "

Details: When asked whether Belarusian troops are ready to invade Ukraine, Danilov said: "When we say 'ready or not ready', we have to understand that this is an army. If they are put on some sort of alert, they may do this or that.  At present, we are not seeing the capabilities or forces there."

At the same time, the Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council stated that Russia had already "politically occupied" Belarus.

"We have to understand that Lukashenko is heavily influenced by the Russian Federation. Russia has in fact already occupied Belarus politically. And to say that this is a free country is a big assumption, so to speak," he said.

Previously: 

On 16 June, Danilov announced that on 15 June, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had convened a meeting of the Commander-in-Chief’s Office regarding the possible threat of a new invasion by Belarus, at which he issued orders to conduct a readiness check in four oblasts.