According to state media, a missile launched by the S-300 air defense system fell on Belarusian territory yesterday. In response, the country's air defense chief speculated about possible causes and motives.
After the discovery of an anti-aircraft missile on Belarusian territory, the Ministry of Defense in Minsk spoke of a possible provocation by Kiev. "Either the unguided anti-aircraft missile was fired unintentionally because of the crew's poor training, or the missile was defective, or it was a deliberate provocation by the Ukrainian armed forces," said Belarusian anti-aircraft defense chief Kirill Kazantsev in a news channel Telegram Ministry statement.
State media in the Belarusian capital Minsk had reported that a missile launched by the S-300 air defense system had fallen on Belarusian territory on Thursday morning. According to Kazantsev, it was intercepted over the Ivanava district in the western Belarusian region of Brest. Because of the incident, the Ukrainian ambassador has already been summoned to Minsk. Kyiv, for its part, has declared its readiness to cooperate in clarifying the incident.
On Thursday, Ukraine repelled a massive Russian missile attack. Some of the Russian rockets also hit objects in the western Ukrainian region of Lviv. "Therefore, a provocation by the terrorist state of Russia cannot be ruled out, which has chosen a flight path for its cruise missiles in such a way as to provoke their launch in the airspace over Belarus," the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said in a statement.
That would be a similar incident as in November when Polish territory was hit. Concerns are growing in Ukraine that Russia could launch a new attack from Belarus. Such an incident could therefore be used by Belarus and Russia as an excuse to take action again from there.
