Belarus has no plans to join the Russian invasion of Ukraine but is sending five battalion tactical groups (BTGs) to its border on rotation to replace forces already stationed there, its Chief of General Staff Viktor Gulevich said on Saturday.

A top Ukrainian security official on Friday warned Belarus not to send troops to Ukraine, saying Ukraine was showing restraint towards Belarus despite the country being used as a launchpad for Russian planes.

“I want to underline that the transfer of troops is in no way connected with (any) preparation, and especially not with the participation of Belarusian soldiers in the special military operation on the territory of Ukraine,” Gulevich said.

Ukraine's military has accused Russian aircraft of firing at Belarusian border villages from Ukrainian air space on Friday to provide an excuse for an offensive.

"This is a PROVOCATION! The goal is to involve the Armed Forces of the Republic of Belarus in the war with Ukraine!" its Air Force Command said in an online statement.

The Kremlin did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Air Force Command's statement.

The alleged attacks took place as Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko was meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, according to Ukraine's State Centre for Strategic Communications.

The result of this meeting could be an attack by Belarus across Ukraine's northern border, the center said in statement.

"According to preliminary data, Belarusian troops may be drawn into an invasion on March 11 at 21:00 (1900 GMT)," it said.

Ukraine is showing restraint towards Belarus but will fight back if Belarusian soldiers cross the border to join the Russian invasion, Ukraine's top security official Oleksiy Danilov said on Friday.

Danilov said Ukraine was being careful in dealing with Belarus despite the country being used as a launchpad for Russian planes to attack Ukraine, Danilov said.

Ukrainian senior officials said Russia was doing everything possible to draw Belarus into the conflict, after failing in what Western countries say was an initial plan for a lightning assault on the capital.

"We also understand that the Belarusian government has been doing everything possible to avoid joining this war," Ukrainian deputy interior minister Yevheniy Yenin said on national television on Friday.

There was no immediate comment on the allegations from Belarus.

At least 1,582 civilians in Ukraine's southeastern city of Mariupol have been killed as a result of Russian shelling and a 12-day blockade, the city council said in an online statement on Friday.

We will never forget and will never forgive this crime against humanity," it said.

Russian forces plan to fire on Belarus from the territory of Ukraine in order to draw the Moscow ally into the war, Minister of Defense of Ukraine Oleksiy Reznikov warned on Friday afternoon. According to Ukrainian media, the Russian shelling may have already begun.

Reznikov added that Russia intends to carry out an attack from Ukraine's airspace to cover up the crime, but has noted that the Ukrainian army has not planned, does not plan and will not plan any aggressive actions against Belarus.

Russia might use chemical weapons in Ukraine in a "false flag" attack to retroactively justify its invasion, a Western official said, but adding that there is nothing to suggest broader use of such weapons in the war.

"We think that chemical weapons could be used in a false flag attack to provide a retrospective justification for Russia's invasion of Ukraine," the official said on Friday.

"The context that we've been looking at it in is from a false flag perspective. Clearly, whilst the Russians are highly likely to have a chemical weapons capability, there is nothing to suggest that they intend to use at this point in a major escalation of the current conflict."

The UN human rights office said on Friday it has received "credible reports" of several cases of Russian forces using cluster munitions in populated areas in Ukraine, adding that indiscriminate use of such weapons might amount to war crimes.

"Due to their wide area effects, the use of cluster munitions in populated areas is incompatible with the international humanitarian law principles governing the conduct of hostilities," spokesperson Liz Throssell told Geneva-based journalists.

"We remind the Russian authorities that directing attacks against civilians and civilian objects, as well as so-called area bombardment in towns and villages and other forms of indiscriminate attacks, are prohibited under international law and may amount to war crimes."

Cluster bombs are made up of a hollow shell that explodes in mid-air, dispersing dozens or even hundreds of smaller 'bomblets' over a wide area. Russia is not a party to a 2008 convention banning cluster munitions although it is bound by international humanitarian law, particularly the prohibition against indiscriminate attacks.

Asked about a potential change in Facebook policy that would allow some users to call for violence against Russians and Russian soldiers, Throssell called it "concerning" and said her office would raise it with the company.

The fighting continues
Three airstrikes launched Friday morning towards the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro killed at least one person, state emergency services said, adding that the strikes were close to a kindergarten and an apartment building. Additionally, four were killed and six were injured in Russian strikes on an airfield in Lutsk, according to Pravda.

Casualties were reported in the Sumy Oblast due to Russian artillery shelling, with two civilians killed in Kerdylivshchyna village, according to Pravda.

Russian forces hit a psychiatric hospital near the eastern Ukrainian town of Izyum on Friday, regional authorities said.

Oleh Synegubov, governor of the Kharkiv region, said 330 people had been at the hospital and that 73 were evacuated. The number of casualties was being established, he said, describing it as a "brutal attack on civilians."

The eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv is under relentless bombardment from Russian forces, the city's mayor said in a televised interview on Friday.

"As of today, 48 (of the city's) schools have been destroyed," said Mayor Ihor Terekhov. The city has a peacetime population of about 1.4 million.

On Sunday, Ukraine warned that Russia was mustering forces to encircle Dnipro, home to about one million people before the invasion started.

The mayor of Odessa on Friday warned that Russia will try to surround the city to carry out a possible naval assault, and may even go via Transnistria, the Russian-aligned breakaway in Moldova, to do so.

Strategic turning point
President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday that Ukraine had reached a strategic turning point in its war with Russia, but cautioned that it was not possible to say how long fighting would continue.

"It is impossible to say how many days we still have to free Ukrainian land. But we can say we will do it. For we have already reached a strategic turning point," he said in a televised address, urging the international community to increase sanctions pressure on Russia.

https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-700998

Belarus was supposed to be part of the initial invasion, but most of their military refused. The army refused to listen to their president because they aren't brainwashed like the Russians.

Can Russia quickly station 12 Nuclear Silos in Belarus?

Chameleon9:
Belarus was supposed to be part of the initial invasion, but most of their military refused. The army refused to listen to their president because they aren't brainwashed like the Russians.

Western Media told U this?

They've found another distraction to dissuade the masses from their poor handling of covid.

Those fleeing their homeland no longer care about mask mandates.

Afonjers need to start learning from Ukrainians so that when the second coming of Fulanis arrive in their kingdom under the leadership of the drug baron they'll know the routes they have to take into Benin Republic.

Chameleon9:
Belarus was supposed to be part of the initial invasion, but most of their military refused. The army refused to listen to their president because they aren't brainwashed like the Russians.

the media where you heard it from really brainwashed you