Kiev will not respond to Minsk’s threat to close the Ukrainian embassy in connection with the appearance of Ukrainian drones in the country’s airspace and asks not to escalate the situation. This was announced on August 13 by the official representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Georgy Tikhy.

In his opinion, there is also no point in reacting to Belarus’ statements that drones of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) are flying over the country.

«We have highlighted these statements, studied them carefully and are analyzing them, we do not see any particular expediency to react. We urge you not to escalate these anti-Ukrainian sentiments and not to create the impression of any threats that do not exist,» Tikhy said at a briefing. The broadcast was carried out on the page of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine on the Facebook social network (owned by Meta, which is recognized as extremist and banned in the Russian Federation).

He added that the agency will monitor further statements from Belarusian colleagues and respond to them accordingly.

Prior to that, on August 9, Belarusian air defense systems shot down 13 UAVs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine over the Mogilev region. The next day, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said that Minsk would not leave any provocative actions by Kiev unanswered.

On August 10, Charge d’affaires of Ukraine Olga Timush was summoned to the Belarusian Foreign Ministry, who was told that the country could consider «the expediency of the further presence of the diplomatic mission of Ukraine in Minsk.»

The Belarusian Foreign Ministry said that the incident with the APU drones radically escalates the situation in the region and is an attempt to expand the conflict. At the same time, Valery Revenko, head of the Department of International military cooperation of the Belarusian Defense Ministry, pointed out that the republic considers the flights of Ukrainian drones over its territory as a provocation and an attempt to involve Minsk in the conflict.