What did Belarus's border closure signal for Ukraine?
A retrospective on the regional tensions around Belarus's frontiers in early July 2021, as reported at the time.
What did the regional picture look like on 6 July 2021, and where did Ukraine stand in it? The reports from the days before that date show Belarus at the centre of several border disputes.
On 2 July 2021, Belarus closed its border with Ukraine. President Alexander Lukashenko claimed that arms were being smuggled into the country in an attempt by "outside powers" to overthrow his regime. Ukraine denied the claims and said that closing the border would make its people "suffer".
A second frontier under strain
On the same day, Lithuania declared a state of emergency amid an increase in the number of undocumented migrants crossing from Belarus. The Government of Lithuania accused Lukashenko of deliberately trying to destabilise the country by encouraging and allowing refugees, mostly Syrians, to cross the border.
What the pattern showed
Taken together, the two announcements put Belarus in dispute with two neighbours within a single day. In each case the Belarusian side was accused, or itself accused others, of hostile intent. Kyiv rejected the allegation made against it. Vilnius made its own accusation against Minsk.
The human cost of the Ukrainian closure was the point Kyiv chose to stress. Its statement framed the decision as something that would hurt ordinary people rather than a security measure.
Elsewhere, on 30 June 2021, the last Polish troops left Afghanistan, ending Poland's involvement in the war. Around 33,000 Polish troops had served there, and 44 were killed in action. The departure showed one neighbour of Belarus closing a long overseas commitment just as attention turned to its own eastern frontier.
