Belarusian president claims dozen Ukrainian drones shot down over his country

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) - Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko on Saturday claimed that a dozen of Ukrainian drones were shot down over his country overnight.

Speaking at a news conference in the capital Minsk, Lukashenko said the drones were detected and destroyed by the air defense systems in southern Belarus.

"We suspect that these were attack drones. Violating the airspace of Belarus, they flew from Ukraine," he said.

The Belarusian air defense forces were put into the combat readiness, Lukashenko said, adding that Ukraine has been repeatedly violating Belarusian airspace.

"The air defense forces were put on full alert to intercept targets. There were about a dozen of them. Planes and a helicopter took off. And also the means of multiple launch rocket systems were placed on high alert," he said.

According to the Belarusian president, radars detected more drones that were heading toward the Russian city of Smolensk but then changed direction and flew to the city of Yaroslavl.

Lukashenko said that the Belarusian military warned their Russian counterparts about the threat and all drones were successfully shot down by Russian air defense systems.