Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko said on Saturday that Belarusian anti-aircraft forces destroyed several targets over the country's territory launched from Ukraine.
Belarusian news agency Belta reported that Lukashenko said it was most likely drones launched from Ukraine, without citing any evidence, the Belarusian service of Radio Free Europe reported.
Ukraine did not comment on Lukashenko's statement.
Lukashenko said "about a dozen" targets violated Belarusian airspace in the eastern Mogilev region bordering Russia, prompting Minsk to put its air force and air defense forces on high alert.
He added that other targets were "transported" to Russia and later destroyed near the Russian city of Yaroslavl.
Earlier on Saturday, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced that Russian forces had intercepted six drones in the Yaroslavl region.
Belarusian Defense Minister Viktor Hrenin said that "in view of the situation in Ukraine and in the Kursk region of Russia, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces issued an order to reinforce troops in the tactical regions of Gomel and Mozyr in order to respond to such provocations."
"Special operations forces, ground troops and missile forces, including the Polonez and Iskander systems, have been tasked to deploy to specific areas," he said.
Hrenin said that Belarus considers the violation of its airspace a provocation and that it is "ready to respond."
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