Ukraine builds wall on border with Belarus - presidential adviser

As Ukraine entered the strategic city of Kherson, an adviser to President Zelensky says that Ukraine intends to build a reinforced concrete wall and other fortifications on its border with Belarus.

 A view of a vehicle next to a fence built by Polish soldiers on the border between Poland and Belarus near the village of Nomiki, Poland August 26, 2021. (photo credit: REUTERS/KACPER PEMPEL)
A view of a vehicle next to a fence built by Polish soldiers on the border between Poland and Belarus near the village of Nomiki, Poland August 26, 2021.
(photo credit: REUTERS/KACPER PEMPEL)

Ukraine said on Friday it was building a reinforced concrete wall and other fortifications on its border with Belarus, a close Kremlin ally that Moscow used as a staging ground for its February 24 invasion of Ukraine.

Presidential adviser Kyrylo Tymoshenko said a 3 km barbed-wire-topped wall had gone up in the region of Volyn on the border with Belarus, which Kyiv says remains a threat. There were also sandbags and trenches, he said.

"That is not the end of it, but we are not going to disclose details," the official said.

He added that other work was also underway in the regions of Rivne and Zhytomyr which also border Belarus, but he did not elaborate.

He published photographs of security officers uncoiling barbed wire next to a wall that appeared more than two meters high.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky attends a joint news briefing with Poland's President Andrzej Duda, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine August 23, 2022. (credit: REUTERS/Viacheslav Ratynskyi)
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky attends a joint news briefing with Poland's President Andrzej Duda, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine August 23, 2022. (credit: REUTERS/Viacheslav Ratynskyi)

Ukraine's defense minister told Reuters on Thursday that there remained a threat from Belarus, but that forces there were "in a passive position". Ukraine's border with Belarus is more than 1,000 km long.