Belarus protests to Ukraine after downing stray air defence missile
- Belarus said its air defence shot down a missile launched from Ukrainian territory
- It was rare instance of the war spilling over the border into Russia’s ally
Belarus protested to Ukraine’s ambassador on Thursday after saying it had downed a Ukrainian S-300 air defence missile in a field, during one of Russia’s heaviest aerial onslaughts against Ukraine since the start of the war in February.
The military commissar of the Brest region, Oleg Konovalov, played the incident down in a video posted on social media by the state-run BelTA news agency, saying locals had “absolutely nothing to worry about. Unfortunately, these things happen”.
He compared the incident to one in November, when an S-300 believed to have strayed after being fired by Ukrainian air defences landed on the territory of Nato-member Poland, triggering fears of an escalation that were rapidly defused.
Nevertheless, the Ukrainian ambassador was summoned to the foreign ministry in Minsk to receive a formal protest.
“The Belarusian side views this incident as extremely serious,” spokesman Anatoly Glaz said.
“We demanded that the Ukrainian side conduct a thorough investigation, … hold those responsible to account and take comprehensive measures to prevent the recurrence of such incidents in the future.”