Ukraine's Lviv braces for possible military escalation from Belarus side of the border

Ukraine on Saturday warned of a threat of escalation on the border with Belarus, and summoned an emergency meeting of the city's military and officials to develop an action plan for response. Mayor of Lviv Andrii Sadovyi, in a Facebook post, claimed that the military threat has been suspected to emerge near the Ukrainian city of Lviv. Belarusian military might launch an offensive and also possibly impose a blockade of export routes. 

"In each district of the city, we will create a defense headquarters and conduct additional training for members of the volunteer formations of territorial defense forces," Mayor of Lviv Andrii Sadovyi, informed on Saturday. "We will not transfer them to 24-hour duty yet. However, this decision can change at any moment. Since the situation on the Belarusian-Ukrainian border is unpredictable, this is its biggest difficulty. We are also considering the option of forming reserve volunteer battalions from employees of the city council and utility enterprises,” he went on to add. 

Ukraine’s NSDC Center for Combating Disinformation, meanwhile, claimed that Russian troops have been planning a strategic attack on Ukraine from the frontier shared by Moscow's ally Belarus. Belarusian President Lukashenko has also recently claimed that Ukraine's forces have attempted to attack the military facilities on Belarusian territory. This, he said, happened three days ago. He warned that his country does not want to start a war with Ukraine, having earlier condemned the western arms supply. 

Russia should be ready to use nuclear weapons: Belarusian President

Authoritative Belarusian President Lukashenko in a meeting with Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergey Lavrov in Minsk, Belarus, also made escalatory remarks, saying that Russia should be ready to deploy nuclear weapons to counter the Western nations' acts of global hegemony. “We have not done it yet. But we have to be ready,” Lukashenko said, lambasting the West for conducting similar nuclear drills to subvert Russia and Belarus. Speaking alongside Lavrov, Lukashenko accused the West of a bias, stressing that "we have to defend ourselves."  Russia's foreign minister  agreed that these types of nuclear drills are in violation of the international Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty of 1968.  

He further stressed that the West has declared an "economic war" against Russia. "What does transit closure mean?" asked Russia's ally, referring to the Kaliningrad block by Lithuania. "Putin and I very seriously discussed these matters, they shift the blame onto the European Union. They claim they didn’t do it, the European Union made this decision. But decisions are made by a consensus," asserted Lukashenko. "They seized our assets, our money, and imposed sanctions. This is nothing but an economic war,” said the Belarusian President.