Belarus Launches New Information Campaign Against Ukraine

The Ministry of Defense and the State Border Committee of the Republic of Belarus have launched a joint information campaign against Ukraine.

The Belaruski Gayun monitoring group reported on this.

It is reported that since June 21, 2024, the Armed Forces of the Republic of Belarus have been conducting readiness checks, which began the day after Belarusian border guards announced an alleged increase in the Ukrainian group near the Belarusian border.

During that week, the Belarusian Defense Ministry published daily reports about the inspection. To create the impression of serious “maneuvers,” even preparations for a military parade were presented as an inspection.

The situation became more acute when, on the morning of June 28, Belarusian border guards published a video of a supposedly Ukrainian DJI Mavic drone being shot down.

The video shows two Belarusian border guards shooting down a drone by a Groza-R2 electronic warfare rifle.

The Belarusian Border Guard Service showed footage of the drone allegedly flying over industrial facilities, but no footage of the launch or flight across the border was shown.

In addition, Belarusians reported finding a weapons cache on the same section of the border.

Exactly an hour after the Border Guard Service’s announcement, the Belarusian Defense Ministry stated that the Polonez MLRS division was participating in tasks to cover the state border.

In a comment, the commander of the unit stated that the division had reached the designated area with a full complement of ammunition and was ready to carry out missile strikes at a distance of up to 300 kilometers within 20 minutes.

The Belaruski Gayun monitoring group says that this information campaign is connected with the Belarusian authorities’ attempt to play on the “patriotic frenzy” after the recent parade and show citizens that the army exists not only for parades.

In addition, the goal may be to influence Ukraine in the context of the failure of the Russian offensive in the Kharkiv region.

“The implemented psychological operation fits very well into a more global agenda. In a situation where the Russian offensive in the Kharkiv region has stalled, and Moscow is ready to sit down at the negotiating table ‘even tomorrow’, the Ukrainian information space can be unnerved by the ‘threat from the Belarusian direction’,” the Belaruski Gayun monitoring group says.