Belarus accuses Ukraine of firing missiles as war escalates

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Belarus has accused neighboring Ukraine of firing an air defense missile into Belarusian territory. The incident has raised concerns as Belarus is a close ally of Russia, which invaded Ukraine earlier this year.

By Stefan J. Bos

Belarus has confirmed that it summoned the Ukrainian ambassador after shooting down a Ukrainian missile over Belarusian territory. The Belarusian Defense Ministry said the S-300 air defense missile was shot down over the village of Gorbakha in the Brest region of northern Ukraine.

Footage appeared to show missile debris found in an agricultural field near the village about 15 kilometers (9 miles) from the border with Ukraine.

There was no causal relationship. But a witness here said, “the windows were shaking, and the house was vibrating” from what must have been a sound wave.

Military commissar of Belarus’ Brest region Oleg Konovalov said his forces detected the missile early Thursday.

Konovalov says his forces witnessed an apparent S-300 air defense missile from the Ukrainian Armed Forces. He compares the incident to last month “when a missile fell in Poland”, killing two people.

The Ukrainian military acknowledged the incident but said it was “the result of air defence”.

Heavy shelling

The missile came in one of Russia’s heaviest bombardments of Ukraine to date.

Russia expressed its concern and condemned Ukraine’s rocket attack. But Ukraine has not ruled out a “deliberate provocation” in which Moscow launched cruise missiles on a course that would be intercepted over Belarusian territory.

Kyiv said it had “the unconditional right to defense and protection of its own skies” and urged independent experts to investigate.

However, the missile incident over Belarus did not come as a complete surprise: Belarus allowed Russia to use its territory and military bases to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February and other attacks.

Still, the incident was to raise fears that Belarus could become even more actively involved in Europe’s biggest armed conflict since World War II.

Ukrainian officials have recently claimed that Russia may be planning a new offensive from Belarus, but Western governments have said they have yet to see evidence of this.

However, as the war escalated, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that most parts of his country were without power in freezing conditions after Russian missile strikes on Thursday. Moscow fired dozens of missiles at cities across Ukraine on Thursday, including the capital Kyiv, as well as Kharkiv, Lviv and Odessa.

Listen to the report by Stefan Bos

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