An unspecified number of Ukrainian and Belarusian “saboteurs” have been captured near the border with Ukraine, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said Friday.
“Ukrainian citizens were crawling across our border, transferring explosives to commit sabotage primarily on the territory of Russia and Belarus,” Lukashenko said.
“All saboteurs have been detained, Belarusians were among them,” he added at a trade union event in Minsk.
On Thursday, authorities in the southern Belarus region of Lelchitsy announced they had conducted a “counterterrorism operation” near the border with Ukraine, but they did not provide further details.
Lukashenko said Friday that the counterterrorism operation had ended “without [anyone] even noticing.”
It was not immediately possible to verify his claims, which included the assertion that Belarusian authorities apprehend saboteurs “two to three times a week.”
A staunch ally of Moscow, Belarus allowed Russian forces to use its territory as a launchpad for the full-scale invasion of Ukraine nearly two years ago.
But Lukashenko has so far refused to send his country's troops over the border.
Like Russia, Belarus has been targeted by Western sanctions over Moscow’s war against Ukraine.
