Kremlin accuses Ukraine of threatening sovereignty of close Russian ally Belarus

MOSCOW (Reuters) – The Kremlin on Monday accused Ukraine of threatening the sovereignty of Russia’s close ally Belarus after Kiev gave Minsk a week to remove signal relay stations it said were used to guide Russian attacks.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Friday that a week should be enough for Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko to remove equipment he says Russia used in its attacks on Ukraine, threatening that Ukraine would take action if Lukashenko did not do so.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko are expected to discuss Zelenskiy’s remarks “in the foreseeable future,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

“The threat itself is, of course, extremely aggressive: interference in the internal affairs of another country and encroachment on the sovereignty of another country,” Peskov told reporters.

“But we have no doubt that the Belarusian leadership and Belarus itself can protect their sovereignty.”

Russian forces used Belarusian territory to enter Ukraine in February 2022, but Minsk, home to Russia’s tactical nuclear weapons, did not deploy its own troops and said it had no plans to join the war.

(Reporting by Dmitry Antonov; Editing by Andrew Osborn)