Belarus ready to open border with Ukraine when possible, official says

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(28 Jan 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

++CLIENTS NOTE: EDIT RESENT AT 1035GMT ON JANUARY 29 WITH UPDATED HEADLINE AND STORYLINE++

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Gomel region, Belarus - 28 January 2025
1.⁠ ⁠Anti-tank obstacles and blocked road on Ukrainian side of Belarusian-Ukrainian border
2.⁠ ⁠Wide of cross border road from Belarus to Ukraine
3.⁠ ⁠Various of Belarusian border guard with gun
4. Belarusian border guard walking towards anti-tank tank obstacles on Belarusian side
5.⁠ ⁠Various of anti-tank tank obstacles
6. Wide of Novaya Guta checkpoint
7.⁠ ⁠Various of border guard at Novaya Guta checkpoint
8.⁠ ⁠SOUNDBITE (Russian) Anton Bychkovsky, press secretary of the State Border Committee of the Republic of Belarus:
“Well, we all understand perfectly well that the risks, challenges and threats that come from the territory of a state that is at war must be taken into account in the defense plans of our state, and we certainly do this. That’s why the border territory was equipped accordingly.”
9.⁠ ⁠Wide of Novaya Guta checkpoint
10.⁠ ⁠Wide of border guard with dog at checkpoint
11.⁠ ⁠Border guard with anti-drone gun
12.⁠ ⁠SOUNDBITE (Russian) Anton Bychkovsky, press secretary of the State Border Committee of the Republic of Belarus:
“On the Belarusian side, all checkpoints that are located on the border with Ukraine are functioning. Service is being carried out at them. Border guards are fully prepared to resume international communication with the neighboring side in the shortest possible time.”
13.⁠ ⁠Various of border guards walking on the plowed strip along the border
STORYLINE:
Belarusian authorities said on Tuesday that Belarus is prepared to quickly resume cross-border traffic with Ukraine when the situation allows.

“On the Belarusian side, all checkpoints that are located on the border with Ukraine are functioning. Service is being carried out at them. Border guards are fully prepared to resume international communication with the neighboring side in the shortest possible time,” press secretary of the Belarusian State Border Committee, Anton Bychkovsky, said at the crossing on Tuesday.

Journalists were invited to visit the Novaya Guta checkpoint in the southeastern region of Gomel, that used to be one of the biggest checkpoints between the two countries with routes towards Kyiv, Chernihiv and other Ukrainian cities.

Ukraine closed all its checkpoints on the border with Belarus after the conflict started in February 2022.

Both countries have built fortifications on their sides and strengthened security measures.

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, who extended his more than three-decade rule in an orchestrated election on Sunday, allowed Moscow to use the country’s territory to start the conflict in Ukraine in 2022 and later hosted some of Russia’s tactical nuclear weapons.

Lukashenko has been in power since 1994 and has ruled the country with an iron fist.

He has relied on subsidies and political support from Russian President Vladimir Putin, himself in office for a quarter-century, a relationship that helped him survive the 2020 protests.

AP video shot by Kirill Zarubin

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