(John Ransom, Headline USA) Ukraine’s Defense Ministry warned on Sunday that Belarus is planning a separate invasion of Ukraine in cooperation with their ally Russia, a topic that has been discussed on again and off again since the Russian invasion of Ukraine started, reported the Epoch Times.
“The direct involvement of Belarusian troops in Russia’s armed aggression against Ukraine, against the will of ordinary soldiers and the vast majority of the Belarusian people, will be a fatal mistake for Alexander Lukashenko,” the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said via a statement that was published on the ministry’s Facebook page in English.
The AFU General Staff reports that Ukrainian intelligence has recorded signs of preparation of the armed forces of the Republic of #Belarus for a direct invasion of #Ukrainian territory pic.twitter.com/pRk5QjtlvV
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) March 20, 2022
Lukashenko, meanwhile, said he has no intention of getting involved in the war between Ukraine and Russia, although he has stopped short of giving a full guarantee that he won’t join the war.
“There’s nothing for us to do there, and we haven’t been invited,” Lukashenko was quoted as saying, according to Reuters. “I want to emphasize again … We are not going to become involved in this operation that Russia is conducting in Ukraine.”
But Reuters has also warned that there is pressure on Belarus from their Russian ally to join the fray, as Lukashenko said that two missiles from the Ukrainian side of the border were intercepted going to Belarus, an operation that Ukraine described as an attack from Russia designed to draw Belarus into the war.
Already Belarus has performed a major function in Russia’s war, operating as a place where Russia can hide their dead soldiers from the Russian citizenry.
One local Belarus medical official has claimed they’ve seen 2,500 Russian dead going through one regional hospital, while the Ukraine military has claimed 14,000 Russian dead so far, the Daily Mail reported.
“There are not enough surgeons. Earlier, the corpses were transported by ambulances and loaded on Russian trains,” said one local doctor.
“After someone made a video about it and it went on the Internet, the bodies were loaded at night so as not to attract attention.”
The Pentagon has estimated so far that Russian losses have been closer to 6,000, according to the Financial Times, still a significant number of casualties.
Those casualties may increase the pressure on Belarus to intercede on behalf of Russia, which needs warm bodies, a.k.a. cannon fodder, as Russia has traditionally relied on a military strategy that’s been wasteful of both equipment and men.
“The Russians need bodies,” François Heisbourg, a French defense analyst said. “They’ve already had a few thousand Chechens and now they’re talking about flying in Syrians.
“For the urban combat phase in particular you really need a lot of manpower and that’s exactly what the Russians don’t currently have,” he added.
“So the notion of filling in with Belarusians . . . would actually make a lot of sense,”
