The Kremlin on Friday expressed «extreme concern» over Thursday’s impact on Belarusian territory of pieces of a missile intercepted by its air defense systems, after which Minsk claimed that the shot had been fired by Ukraine.
«In any case, it is an event that causes extreme concern not only among us, but also among our Belarusian partners,» Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, Russia’s Interfax news agency reported.
The Belarusian Defense Ministry said Thursday that several pieces of the projectile have hit the area around the town of Gobarja, with no casualties reported so far, before adding that the missile was fired by Ukrainian S-300 air defense systems.
For its part, the Ukrainian Executive said that the missile might have actually been launched by Russia in an attempt at «deliberate provocation» as part of Moscow’s «desperate and persistent» attempts to involve Belarus in the war.
Belarus is a key ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin in the military offensive launched in Ukraine, although Minsk maintains that it does not want to become directly involved. Russian and Belarusian forces have, however, conducted joint maneuvers.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
