Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy believes that Alyaksandr Lukashenka is gradually drawing Belarusians into the war. He said this in an interview with Zerkalo.
“I believe that he is drawing Belarusians in. Drawing them in — but that does not mean that Belarusian soldiers, military personnel, or border guards will come onto our territory today. As I have already said, this is a different kind of war now — you can draw people in technologically. He is involving them by deploying his auxiliary technical forces on your territory.
[And therefore] Lukashenka can no longer say: ‘I did not control [the missiles], they were stationed here before, and so they flew.’ But there were no drones like there are now before the war began, such relay transmitters did not exist as those they are using, and no ‘Oreshnik’ physically existed on the territory of Belarus. And it cannot simply appear there. That is what I am talking about. Sorry for repeating myself so many times. You know, I feel the risk. I feel it,” he said.
Earlier, Zelenskyy explained his decision to impose sanctions against Alyaksandr Lukashenka precisely by the deployment of relay transmitters to guide Shahed drones and the appearance of Oreshnik in Belarus. According to him, the sanctions against Lukashenka will not be limited to him alone and may also affect his inner circle.
In the interview, the Ukrainian president also mentioned that Ukrainian services had been engaged in ensuring that “three or four relay transmitters were no longer operating on the territory of Belarus.” He did not specify how this was achieved.