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TALLINN, Estonia (AP) \u2014 Belarus has deployed aircraft and air defense troops to its border with Ukraine, a day after President Alexander Lukashenko announced he would station almost a third of the country\u2019s military along the frontier.<\/p>\n
The Belarusian military also deployed anti-aircraft missiles and soldiers from the country\u2019s radio-technical corps, Maj. Gen. Andrey Lukyanovich, commander of the Belarusian Air Defense Forces, said on national television, describing the move as a significant increase.<\/p>\n
Belarus\u2019 authoritarian leader, Lukashenko, on Sunday announced that he\u2019d ordered almost a third of the army to the border with Ukraine. Although he did not specify troop numbers, Belarus\u2019 army numbers about 60,000.<\/p>\n
Lukashenko said the decision was in response to additional Ukrainian troops being deployed along the border, but that could not be independently verified.<\/p>\n
Ukraine has not confirmed the Belarusian deployment to the 1,084-kilometer common border.<\/p>\n
Russia has used Belarus \u2014 which depends on Russian loans and cheap energy \u2014 as a staging ground for its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, moving its troops through Belarusian territory to attack Ukraine from the north. Russia also moved some of its tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus in 2023.<\/p>\n
Lukashenko on Sunday also called for negotiations between Russia and Ukraine but said Kyiv\u2019s current incursion into Russia\u2019s Kursk region prevented talks. He described the \u201cescalation\u201d as an attempt to provoke Moscow.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n