Belarus to form new air assault brigade on Ukrainian border

Belarus is forming a new air assault brigade on its border with Ukraine, special operations commander Alexander Ilyukevich announced on Sunday.

The 37th Air Assault Brigade will be based in the Homyel region, roughly 40 kilometres from the border with Ukraine. It will be Belarus’s fourth air assault brigade. Ilyukevich said several military units and subunits have already been created, personnel have been assigned, the officer corps has been staffed, and troops are undergoing scheduled training.

It's unclear from his statement how ready the brigade actually is, though it is scheduled to be stationed next year. “This year we're forming another battalion, along with combat support, artillery, air defence and reconnaissance units,” he said.

Belarus’s military leadership has previously described the southern border as its “most volatile direction” and one that needs reinforcing. Two years ago, Alexander Lukashenko said Belarus had moved nearly a third of its army to the Ukrainian border, arguing this was necessary because Ukraine was keeping more than 120,000 troops near Belarus and had begun redeploying additional forces there.

Ukrainian officials have repeatedly warned of the risk of invasion and provocations from Belarus.

In June, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky demanded that Minsk remove relay stations in the Brest and Homyel regions that Russia was using to adjust its strikes on Ukraine, threatening to destroy the devices himself if Belarusian authorities didn’t. He later said the stations had gone silent.