The President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, called for Ukraine to stop letting their nationals cross the border to Belarus, especially considering so many of them are carrying weapons.
"Quit sending armed Ukrainians here. We are fed up with stopping them at the border — with shells, bats, guns, ammunitions," he told journalists after the elections on Sunday. "I've had enough of reading those reports and looking through pictures. Stop it. Can't we live in peace?"
Belorussian authorities announced on October 10 that the country's border patrol had detained about 200 Ukrainians in only a week. Many of them couldn't justify the purpose of their visit to Belarus and carried camouflage, bats, bludgeons and traumatic weapons, news agency BelaPan reported, citing the press secretary of the State Border Committee, Alexander Tischenko.
According to Tischenko, some of those detained were on an international wanted list for participating in illegal military groups.