Lukashenko approves decisions on border protection for 2024

Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko has approved decisions on the protection of the state border by border guards, as well as on the protection of the airspace for 2024, BelTA has learned.

Chairman of the State Border Committee Major General Konstantin Molostov noted in his report that all orders and instructions given by the head of state to the border services in 2023 have been fulfilled. The situation on the state border remains consistently tense, but predictable and controllable. Based on the findings of the report, the head of state approved a document on the protection of the state border in 2024. In 2024, Belarus will prioritize measures to identify and prevent challenges and threats to the national interests of Belarus in the border area, will retain the visa waiver for citizens of Lithuania, Latvia and Poland, and further expand the engineering infrastructure of the border. The construction and commissioning of new infrastructure facilities on the border will continue. Maneuver groups will be expanded and equipped with modern weapons and hardware. Another priority is improvement of the combat and professional training of border services, improvement of the educational and training infrastructure, and the further development of the officer training system.Speaking about border protection in the airspace, Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces - First Deputy Defense Minister Viktor Gulevich said that a group of air forces of NATO countries was stationed near the Belarusian border. This was done, among other things, as part of Operation Safe Podlasie. Of course, such a military presence has an impact on the Belarusian border protection in the airspace and increases risks and challenges, the chief of the General Staff emphasized. “The Armed Forces [of Belarus] are taking additional measures to extend the radar range, increase forces and means of radio engineering troops, build up forces and means of electronic warfare in order to successfully detect and affect intruder aircraft,” he noted. According to the chief of the General Staff, the number of provocations in the airspace remains at the same level. Yet, the provision of the Belarusian radio engineering troops with new models of equipment and weapons, both domestically produced and those received from Russia, increases the capabilities of the Air Force and Air Defense to detect provocations and possible accidental violations. “We can track them, document them, raise claims with neighboring countries, which, I hope, do this by accident and not intentionally,” said Viktor Gulevich.