They conduct a “small victorious war” in the information space
Since June 21, an inspection has been conducted in the Belarusian Armed Forces. It began the next day after the statement of the State Border Committee about the alleged increase of the Ukrainian group near the Belarusan border.
During the week, the Ministry of Defense published daily reports about the inspection. Preparations for the military parade was passed off as the inspection to create an impression of serious “maneuvers”. But today the situation has aggravated.
On the morning of June 28, the State Border Committee said:
- There’s the Russian Volunteer Corps in the area of responsibility of the Zhytomyr border guard detachment.
- A border guard detachment suppressed a UAV flying from Ukraine deep into Belarus in Yelsk district after the use of “combat weapons and means of suppression.”
- The day before, a cache with components for the manufacture of explosive devices was found in the same area.
It’s interesting that the State Border Committee mentioned the Russian Volunteer Corps near the border with Belarus, and not units of Belarusian war volunteers fighting on the side of Ukraine. Apparently, for stronger effect.
The press-release had a video of UAV suppression and showed the cache. The video was made in the best traditions of the Belarusian enforcers and has all signs of being staged:
- The footage shows a border guard shooting at the DJI Mavic UAV with an assault rifle. And his colleague is trying to land the drone using the Groza-R2 shotgun. It’s unclear why they would shoot if the chances of shooting down the UAV with an assault rifle are small.
- The State Border Committee said that videos were found on the UAV’s flash drive that confirm reconnaissance of “industrial facilities and border infrastructure.” But the footage of the UAV’s flight through the territory of Ukraine wasn’t shown. How so?
- The stories with weapons caches are classic and are regularly fabricated by the enforcers.
Exactly an hour later, the Belarusian MoD said that “a divizion of the Polonez MLRS […] is fulfilling tasks of covering the state border.” In a commentary, the commander of the unit said, “The divizion entered the area with full ammunition” and “is ready to fulfill the task of launching missile strikes […] within 20 minutes.”
The participation of the Polonez MLRS divizion in the inspection was announced on June 21. However, for a week the Defense Ministry didn’t report anything about the actions of the divizion. But by a happy coincidence, they remembered about Polonez during the exposure of another “unfriendly step” on the part of Ukraine.
All of the mentioned above allows us to state that the State Border Committee together with the Ministry of Defense of Belarus is conducting a coordinated PSYOP.
We should recall that the largest military parade in the history of sovereign Belarus will be held in Minsk on July 3. The event should demonstrate the “strength” of the Belarusian army, which is ready to resist any external threats.
The propaganda tells about preparations for the event in the smallest detail. So why not to conduct a “small victorious war” in the information space? Like, we are also countering attacks on the border even during the parade and its preparations, and we are ready to hit at a distance of up to 300 km. Thus, some might believe that the expenditures on the army and the parade are reasonable. It’s also a reminder of the constant external threat that Lukashenka is talking about.
This PSYOP also fits a more global agenda. In the situation when the Russian offensive in Kharkiv region has failed and Moscow is ready to negotiate “even tomorrow”, it’s possible to frustrate the Ukrainian information space with a “threat from Belarus.”
Does this PSYOP work? It has some effect. This is confirmed by the messages in our chat-bot, where our followers send messages of Ukrainian channels, repeating the statement of the Ministry of Defense of Belarus about the Polonez systems.
We urge not to fall for another PSYOP. Currently, there are no prerequisites for another invasion from the territory of Belarus (including with the participation of the Belarusian Armed Forces).
