Lukashenko imposes terrorism alert in Belarus, warns West against cornering Russia

Belarusian authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko, Russia's closest geopolitical ally, on Friday placed Minsk on what is reported as a "heightened terrorism alert" due to looming tensions on the border with Ukraine. Belarus' dictator warned the West not to corner nuclear-armed Russia, as he commanded the deployment of Belarusian armed forces jointly with Russian forces on the Ukrainian border. The US in view of the recent developments asserted that it is planning to impose crippling sanctions on ally nations to Moscow which supports the latter with support and ammunition during the ongoing hostilities in Ukraine.  At a briefing, Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said that the Biden administration is preparing to impose such a crackdown. 

“This morning, the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control is issuing guidance making clear that we are willing and able to sanction people, companies, or countries that provide ammunition to Russia or support Russia’s military-industrial complex,” Adeyemo said at the conference, earlier today. This came as the Belarusian leader ordered his country on heightened terror alert. He was also accused of providing his country's soil as the staging ground for an attack on Ukraine in the largest invasion of the EU since WWII.

In an interview with Belarus’s state news agency, reports NBC, Lukashenko warned: “The most important thing is, don’t drive your interlocutor and even your opponent [Russia] into a corner. So you mustn’t cross those lines – those red lines, as the Russians say. You can’t cross them."

Belarus undertaking 'covert' mobilization to combat units

Lukashenko is covertly conducting a small-scale mobilisation to "man up the existing combat units," Belarusian weekly newspaper, Nasha Niva, reported. The staffing of combat units of the Belarusian Armed Forces is being done under the guise of military fitness training. "Decision on mobilization has been made in Belarus. We do not yet know the number of people who are planned to be mobilized," the Belarusian weekly paper said.

Further, citing the unnamed sources, the paper reported that during the initial phase of mobilization, men in large cities would not be drafted – but only the rural population. Minsk's regime has decided not to announce the mobilization publicly considering the escalated tensions on the Ukrainian borders.