NATO issued a statement regarding the attacks on Belarusian buses
NATO stated that it currently has no confirmation of who is behind the attacks on Belarusian buses on Russian territory. At the same time, the Alliance believes that the Kremlin continues to try to drag Belarus into the war against Ukraine and is increasingly tying Alexander Lukashenko’s regime to this conflict.
NATO commented on reports of drone strikes on Belarusian buses on Russian territory, which Russian propaganda has been actively spreading recently. Speaking with journalists on the sidelines of the NATO summit, a senior Alliance official stated that there is currently no confirmed information about who exactly is behind these attacks. “There are two points here: first, Russia is very eager to draw Belarus into the conflict. In this light, we see how Russia is consistently taking steps to try to make Lukashenko an increasingly significant—at least at first glance, if not an actual—party to the conflict,” the NATO representative said.
According to him, Moscow’s latest actions indicate that the Kremlin is trying to link Belarus even more closely to the war against Ukraine. At the same time, the Alliance is not drawing conclusions about who exactly organized the attacks on the buses, as there is no verified evidence yet.
The NATO spokesperson also noted that Russia is acting more and more recklessly, and its actions pose a threat not only to Ukrainians. “We have been observing an escalation in the recklessness of Russia’s actions for quite some time now, and all of this, as you know, ultimately endangers the lives of civilians—and this applies not only to the civilian population of Ukraine,” he emphasized.
In June and July 2026, Russian state media and outlets close to the Kremlin repeatedly reported on alleged attacks by Ukrainian forces on civilian buses carrying Belarusian citizens on Russian territory. At the same time, Ukrainian intelligence, the Security Service of Ukraine, and international observers dismissed these reports as a disinformation campaign. In their assessment, such stories may be part of a campaign aimed at creating a pretext for Belarus’s deeper involvement in the war on Russia’s side.
NATO emphasizes that it is closely monitoring the situation, but any conclusions regarding those responsible for these attacks can only be drawn once confirmed facts are available. At the same time, the Alliance is convinced that Russia will continue to use various tools to increase Minsk’s involvement in the war against Ukraine. A senior NATO official made this statement to journalists on the sidelines of the summit in Ankara.
The pace of the Russian army’s advance in Ukraine in June 2026 slowed by nearly four times compared to the same period last year. A senior NATO official reported this on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Ankara.
