Belarusian dictator Oleksandr Lukashenko has given his generals a new explanation for the need to deploy his country’s troops alongside Russia’s, saying Poland is “trembling” to use modern weapons it has received from NATO.

“Poland is simply trembling, demanding that the Americans immediately bring and place nuclear weapons in Poland, including Germany’s nuclear arsenal,” Lukashenko told his generals.

“Recently, we established that the Poles, protecting the border with Belarus, used the armed forces. Yes?”, the Minsk dictator asks one of the officers present at the meeting, adding that “and then they withdrew their armed forces from the border.”

“Partly,” the officer replies.

“Partially, but we were shown that they are leaving. Not at all,” says Oleksandr Lukashenko. “They moved their forces 100 kilometers from the border, saturating them with NATO weapons. All were sent [armele] Soviet and Polish that Ukraine had. They got rid of them,” the Belarusian leader claims.

He then asks his generals how long it will be before Poland sends its troops back to the border with Belarus, now that they are rearmed with modern NATO weapons. “Midnight,” he answers his question.

“And they will be there. But we see. Therefore, this should not reassure us,” he says, referring to the likely withdrawal of Polish troops from the border.

“If necessary, at X hour, as the military says, they will bring their forces to the border to the intended positions within 2-3 hours,” Oleksandr Lukashenko claims.

What Lukashenko said on Monday about the need to deploy troops next to Russia

Earlier in the day, the Minsk leader announced that Belarus and Russia would deploy joint military forces in response to what he called “escalating tensions” on the country’s western borders.

Lukashenko, however, called Ukraine, not Poland, the main danger to his country, saying that Kyiv was preparing an attack on Belarus to justify the deployment of Belarusian-Russian forces, without specifying where exactly they would be stationed.

He also said that on Sunday he was warned about a possible attack on Belarus from the territory of Ukraine, Russian news agencies report.

“Their masters are pushing for a war against Belarus in order to drag us into it. To deal with both Russia and Belarus at the same time,” the Minsk leader said, Russian state media reported.

We will remind you that from the first day of the war, Russian troops attacked Ukraine from the north, from the territory of Belarus, where they were under the official pretext of large-scale “military exercises”. Russian aviation also used air bases in Belarus for incursions into the territory of Ukraine.

Lukashenko has a cardboard army at his disposal

The Deputy Head of the Military Intelligence Service of Ukraine, Vadym Skibitsky, warned on Sunday that Vladimir Putin is again trying to drag Lukashenka into an open war against Ukraine.

But the Center for European Policy Analysis noted in a wide-ranging analysis published on August 26 that Lukashenko is unlikely to decide to send troops to fight alongside the Russians in Ukraine, noting that the move would be unpopular domestically because the equipment of the Belarusian army is outdated and that the size of the army that the Minsk dictator has at his disposal, a small one.

In general, the combat capacity of the Belarusian army is now estimated at approximately 16 battalions or 11,000 soldiers (25 battalions or 17,000 soldiers after partial mobilization). This amount is barely enough for the defense of the Belarusian territory, which would remain open if a significant contingent was transferred to Ukraine.

Moreover, Lukashenko, who lamented in early February that Vladimir Putin had promised to make him a colonel in the Russian army but had not kept his word “so far”, needs his army for more than defense against external threats such as NATO, as as well as internal.

In fact, Mykhailo Podolyak, one of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi’s advisers, said on Twitter on Monday afternoon that there were “no signs” of a new attack from Belarus.

“Lukashenko continues to sell his sovereignty to the Russian Federation. The placement of the Russian contingent in Belarus under fabricated pretexts is a formalization of the occupation,” he added.

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