Dying toll rises to three after Russian assault on flats in Pokrovsk, Ukrainian authorities say
Tensions are mounting on the border between Ukraine and Moscow-allied Belarus, as officers in Kyiv warn of a Russian spring offensive amid ramped-up navy assaults from the Kremlin.
In uncommon entry since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine final 12 months, a CNN workforce visited Belarus’s southwest border close to northwest Ukraine, accompanied by state border officers.
Ukraine shares a 1,000-kilometer frontier with Belarus, a rustic that has performed a key function in aiding Russia’s assault.
CNN’s Frederik Pleitgen and his workforce had been 100 meters away from the Ukrainian facet, the place they noticed the Belarusian authorities’s fortification of the border space with barbed wire in a fastidiously orchestrated and tightly managed press tour.
In response to the CNN workforce on the bottom, the Ukrainian facet of the border is closely barricaded with a number of layers of barbed wire and earth mounds to cease anybody from going by means of.
Belarusian officers informed CNN the border crossing from their facet within the small city of Dyvin remains to be functioning however that the Ukrainian facet has closed the crossing.
Kyiv has closed all border crossings to Belarus, besides to sometimes enable entry to Ukrainian refugees who wish to return to their dwelling nation, out of concern Belarus may very well be used for an extra invasion by Russia.
The CNN workforce may see a Ukrainian flag on Ukraine’s facet of the border crossing and a pink and white flag which is related to the Belarusian opposition — a transfer Belarusian authorities known as a “provocation.”
Russia used the territory of Belarus as one in every of its launch pads for the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Joint navy drills over the past 12 months between Belarus and Russia have contributed to issues that Belarusian troops may be part of Russia’s forces in Ukraine.
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