Belarus claims foiled drone attack from Lithuania; Vilnius called it nonsense

The head of the Belarusian KGB secret service said on Thursday that Belarus foiled an attack by drones launched from Lithuania on the Belarusian capital Minsk and its surroundings. The Baltic country, which is a member of the North Atlantic Alliance, denied Minsk’s claim and called it nonsense. This was reported today by Reuters and AP, which pointed out that the Belarusian KGB did not provide evidence or provide details for its claims.

“The State Security Committee (KGB) in cooperation with colleagues from other security services recently carried out a number of acute security measures that made it possible to prevent combat drone strikes from the territory of Lithuania on objects in Minsk and its suburbs,” KGB chief Ivan Tertel said at today’s meeting All-Belarusian People’s Assembly. This is a body where various delegates, including representatives of the Belarusian government, meet. Tertel further claimed, according to AP, that “radicals” in Lithuania and Poland are producing drones to attack Belarus.

“It’s nonsense. I can’t think of another word,” responded Lithuanian army spokesman Gintautas Ciunis. “Such statements of the Belarusian KGB can be considered as a continuing hostile provocation and an informational attack against Lithuania that have nothing to do with reality. It can be considered that they are also intended for the country’s domestic audience,” the Lithuanian crisis management center said.

Lukashenko often talks about the danger of an attack by NATO or Ukraine, which he uses as a justification for closer military integration with Russia and for keeping the Belarusian defense and security apparatus in a constant state of high alert, Reuters noted.

At today’s session of the All-Belarusian People’s Assembly, Lukashenko argued that his country faces serious internal and external threats that require it to change its security posture, and spoke of nuclear deterrence, according to Reuters. According to him, Russia has deployed “several dozen” tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of Belarus based on the agreement he announced with Putin last year.