Belarusian troops fulfilling tasks only in their homeland - General Staff chief

MINSK. March 1 (Interfax) - Belarusian servicemen are performing tasks only in their homeland, Chief of the Belarusian Armed Forces General Staff and First Deputy Defense Minister Viktor Gulevich said.

"When asked by journalists, Viktor Gulevich said with 100% confidence that Belarusian servicemen are performing tasks only in Belarus, none of them are in Ukraine," the BelTA state-run news agency said on Tuesday.

Gulevich said that at a meeting with members of the Security Council and the leadership of the Council of Ministers on Tuesday, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko ordered them to continue reinforcing the state border and to deploy additional forces and means, which will ensure military security of the country in the southern, northwestern and western operational directions.

He recalled NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg's statements that the alliance's response force will be put on high alert. "It's quite a large taskforce, which can be deployed on the borders with Belarus," Gulevich said.

"We do not have any aggressive plans against neighboring countries. Our first priority is to protect the border, and to protect our territorial integrity," the chief of the Belarusian General Staff said.

As previously reported, Lukashenko held an expanded meeting of the Security Council, which was attended by about 50 persons on Tuesday. Along with the members of the Security Council, the event was attended by the government leadership and members of the expert community.