The Ukrainian military’s general staff announced on Thursday that it had reinforced its border with Belarus, preempting the potential entry of its northern neighbor into its ongoing war with Russia.

“At the current time, the creation of a strike force [i.e. a Belarusian invasion force] is not observable,” Oleksii Hromov, the deputy director of the general staff’s Main Operations Directorate, claimed during a regularly scheduled press briefing. Hromov emphasized, however, that there “are and will be threats” from within Belarus, characterizing the Ukrainian deployment as a reaction to these concerns.

Since February 2022, Belarus has emerged as Russia’s primary ally in the conflict. Although Belarusian troops did not take part in the Russian invasion, Belarusian leader Alexander

Lukashenko allowed Russian troops to deploy along his country’s southern border with Ukraine, less than 100 miles from Kyiv, under the guise of training exercises. After the initial Russian attempt to capture the Ukrainian capital failed, Russian troops retreated to Belarus and were redeployed to eastern and southern Ukraine.

Belarus has also consistently supported Russia at the United Nations, voting against resolutions condemning its initial invasion and its “annexation” of four Ukrainian provinces in the country’s south and east. In both votes, Belarus was one of four other nations to side with Russia, alongside Syria, North Korea, and one other, while most of the United Nations condemned Moscow and other Kremlin-friendly countries, including China, India, and Iran, abstained.

Lukashenko has denied in recent weeks that Belarus plans to invade Ukraine. On Friday, he claimed that the country was “not going to go anywhere,” insisting that there would be “no war at present—we don’t need it,” according to Belarus’s state-run Belta news outlet.

Despite these denials, Lukashenko has tightened Minsk’s security cooperation with Moscow since the onset of the conflict. In early October, he announced the deployment of a permanent Russian-Belarusian joint force within the country, claiming that it was necessary due to “heightened tensions” with NATO nations on Belarus’s northern and western borders. Up to 170 Russian tanks and 200 armored vehicles will be deployed to Belarus as part of the force, alongside several thousand Russian troops, according to Russia’s state-run RT media network. A Belarusian defense ministry official claimed that the move was necessary to counter expanded NATO forces amid a “lack of dialogue.”

Trevor Filseth is a current and foreign affairs writer for the National Interest.

Image: Reuters.