ISW: Russia Uses Khrenin's Words For Incitement

Lukashenka's general has let Belarusian officers down.

Russian war correspondents have reworded the Belarusian defence minister's statement to reinforce the information campaign over the threat of a new invasion.

This is reported by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

Belarusian Defence Minister Viktar Khrenin has said that the actions of NATO's bordering member states allegedly indicate preparations for combat operations.

"While Khrenin's comments cover several variants of the developments, Russian war correspondents have started claiming that his statement directly speaks of NATO's preparation for offensive operations in the east, i.e. against Belarus, which is a meaningless accusation," the analysts write.

At the same time, the experts note, Khrenin made a statement about NATO's military activities on the borders as part of the information campaign aimed at shifting the attention of Ukrainian forces to Belarus.

"Russian war correspondents used Khrenin's words for incitement in order to strengthen the information environment to pressure Belarusian officials to continue supporting the Russian offensive campaign in Ukraine," the analysts said.