Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Russia is trying to further drag Belarus into the war and is planning an attack on Ukraine from the territory of Belarus.
The president announced this following a meeting with military leadership and intelligence chiefs.
“Russia is considering plans for operations in the directions south and north of the territory of Belarus – either against the Chernihiv-Kyiv direction in Ukraine, or against one of the NATO countries – specifically from the territory of Belarus,” Zelenskyy said.
According to him, the Russians are holding meetings with Belarusian leader Lukashenko and trying to persuade him to join new Russian aggressive operations.
Zelenskyy reported that Ukraine has details of the conversation between Russia and Belarus.
“Ukraine will undoubtedly defend itself and its people if Alexander Lukashenko makes a mistake and decides to support this Russian intention as well,” Zelensky said.
On April 20, Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said that Ukrainian President Zelensky's statement that Russia was preparing to attack the Baltic states did not correspond to intelligence information available to Estonia. He also accused Zelensky of “complicating” cooperation between the countries through such “statements.”
President Zelensky reported that the Russian authorities are restricting social networks to curb potential protests that could begin in the Russian Federation due to the announcement of a general mobilization for another major offensive against Ukraine or an attack on one of the Baltic countries.
He suggested that among the reasons for announcing a possible mobilization was the repetition of a major offensive against Ukraine.
“Option “B” is in order to spend less and make less effort and make a small parallel offensive where it is possible to limit ourselves to a smaller number of combat forces. Why? Because this or that state, for example, the Baltics, is not ready for a strong confrontation, because they are small…”, Zelensky added.