President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Belarus has a week to dismantle relay equipment used to direct Russian drone strikes against targets inside Ukraine. If not, Kyiv will deal with the problem itself.
During a joint press conference on Friday with Honduran President Nasry Asfura, Mr. Zelenskyy said he was skeptical of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko’s claims that he didn’t want to be drawn into the conflict between Ukraine and Russia.
“He should be honest, at least to his people, because it is not he who can be drawn into the war — it is his entire country that can be drawn into the war, drawn into it by Russia,” Mr. Zelenskyy said, according to the Interfax-Ukraine news agency. “They have been killing children and adults since the first days of the war — missiles were flying from Belarus.”
Mr. Zelenskyy said his counterpart in Belarus insisted that Moscow’s drone attacks didn’t come from his country.
“He said, ’I did not control it. Russia was acting on its own land.’ Of course, I didn’t believe it,” the Ukrainian leader said at the press conference.
Mr. Zelenskyy wants Belarus to take down the Russian drone repeaters it has placed along the two countries’ border. They are used to receive control commands and video signals and transmit them to the drones.
“Along the two regions bordering Ukraine, there is equipment that adjusts fire on the Ukrainian population,” he said. “We don’t have such a strong front there now, where Ukraine and Belarus are. They are killing civilians there.”
Mr. Zelenskyy said a week will give Belarus ample time to take down the drone repeaters along the border.
“Why do I say a week? Because now every day our civilians are dying because of this [and] our children are injured,” he said. “If he doesn’t do it, we will.”
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