MINSK: Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Sunday that Ukraine had stationed more than 120,000 troops at its border with Belarus and Minsk had deployed nearly a third of its armed forces along the entire border, the Belta state news agency reported. Lukashenko, a staunch ally of Vladimir Putin, was speaking against the backdrop of a Ukrainian incursion into Russia that began on August 6 when thousands of Kyiv's troops smashed through Russia's western border in a major embarrassment for Putin's top military brass.

"Seeing their aggressive policy, we have introduced there and placed in certain points — in case of war, they would be defense — our military along the entire border," Belta cited Lukashenko as saying in an interview with Russian state television. Kyiv did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Andriy Demchenko, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian border service, told Ukrainian media outlet Ukrainska Pravda on Sunday that the situation on the border with Belarus remained unchanged. "As we can see, Lukashenko's rhetoric does not change either, constantly escalating the situation with regularity to please the terrorist country," Demchenko said. "We are not seeing any increase in the number of equipment or personnel of Belarusian units near our border."

Lukashenko did not say exactly how many troops Minsk deployed along the border. Belarus' professional army has about 48,000 troops and around 12,000 state border troops, according to the 2022 International Institute for Strategic Studies' Military Balance. Belarusian Defense Minister Viktor Khrenin said on Friday there was a high probability of an armed provocation from neighboring Ukraine and that the situation at their shared border "remains tense". Lukashenko said the Belarusian-Ukrainian border was mined "as never before" and that Ukrainian troops would incur huge losses if they tried to cross it.

‘One more bridge’

Ukraine’s incursion shows no signs of slowing down. Kyiv said Sunday it had struck a second key bridge in the Kursk region, seeking to disrupt Moscow's supply routes. Russia meanwhile ramped up pressure in east Ukraine, claiming to capture another village just a few kilometers from the Ukrainian-held logistics hub of Pokrovsk.

"Minus one more bridge," Ukrainian Air Force Commander Mykola Oleshchuk said on Telegram, publishing an aerial video of a blast tearing through a bridge near the Russian town of Zvannoye.

"The Air Force aviation continues to deprive the enemy of logistical capabilities with precision air strikes," he said. It was not clear when Ukraine carried out the attack. Oleshchuk did not give a date and Russian military bloggers shared photos of destruction from what appeared to be the same bridge dated Saturday.

On Friday, Ukraine announced it had destroyed a separate bridge in the neighboring town of Glushkovo, both of which lie on the river Seym that winds through the region. The attacks on both bridges have left Russia with limited options to cross the river in the area, according to Russian military bloggers.

Moscow said the destruction of one of the bridges had hindered evacuation efforts. The Russian defense ministry said in a briefing it was pushing back against Ukraine's forces near several villages. More than 120,000 people have fled the region since fighting began, according to Russian authorities.

'Falling debris'

Ukrainian drones attacked an oil storage facility in Russia's southern Rostov region early Sunday morning, sparking a large fire, the local governor said. Videos published on social media showed thick black smoke and bursts of flames coming from the site of the blaze, which the governor said was in the town of Proletarsk.

"In the southeast of the Rostov region, air defenses repelled a drone attack. As a result of falling debris on the territory of industrial storage facilities in Proletarsk, a diesel fuel fire broke out," Governor Vasily Golubev said on Telegram. "At 05:35 (0235 GMT), firefighting at the industrial facility in Proletarsk was suspended due to a second drone attack," he added in an update to the post.

No one was injured and firefighting efforts resumed shortly after, he said in a later post. Proletarsk is some 250 kilometers from the Ukraine border and some 350 kilometers from Kyiv-held areas of fighting on the eastern Ukrainian front line.

Kyiv has repeatedly targeted oil and gas facilities in Russia since the conflict began, some hundreds of kilometers from its borders, in what it has called "fair" retaliation for attacks on its energy infrastructure. Earlier this month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky praised his forces for hitting oil facilities in Russia, saying the attacks would help bring a "just end" to the conflict. — Agencies