Russia is planning to blow up residential buildings, a hospital and a school in the town of Mozyr in the Gomel region of Belarus in order to drag the republic into the war. This was reported by the Main Directorate of Intelligence (GUR) of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. According to the GUR, sabotage groups, which include Russian intelligence officers and mercenaries from private military companies controlled by Yevgeny Prigozhin and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, arrived in the city from Russia under the guise of civilians to carry out a provocation. They plan to carry out a series of artillery and missile strikes against civilian infrastructure and residential areas, as well as the Mozyr Oil Refinery (MNPZ), one of two existing oil refineries in Belarus.
As Major General of the Security Service of Ukraine, ex-deputy chairman of the SBU Viktor Yagun told The Insider, if Ukraine wanted to hit some object in Mozyr, it would be the Moscow Oil Refinery, not residential buildings.
“We have warned several times that if we have some capacity, we will cover military infrastructure and industrial facilities that are used for military purposes. There was not even talk that it could be civilian facilities or residential buildings.”
In his opinion, the refinery in Mozyr is important for Belarus, because it is one of the main plants that can produce fuel for the Russian army. At the same time, Ukraine had plans to hit him if Belarus entered the war at the very beginning. He also believes that now Russia is conducting an information-psychological operation, trying to sow panic, including on the territory of Ukraine. For example, there are reports that people are leaving Mozyr en masse with their families.
“The Belarusian army may enter the war, but all the information that we have says only one thing - that it will be a two-week “suicide” action. That is, they will enter, some of them will surrender, some will run away, some will be destroyed, some will be captured. If they had entered as supporting some kind of second echelon of the Russian army in the first days of the war, I would have looked. I suspect that, as it were, everything was being prepared for this: “for three or four days we take Kyiv, and you enter and take control of the border areas in Western Ukraine.” This was their goal. But everything went wrong, now to independently carry out some actions without interaction with the Russian troops, who are not there yet, is suicide.”
Yagun also added that Ukraine has weapons that can reach the refinery. For example, the accuracy of the Ukrainian Tochka-U missile will make it possible to hit the plant in Mozyr.
The Mozyr Oil Refinery is one of the key enterprises that provided most of Belarus' foreign exchange earnings before the start of the war. It is located 50 km from the Ukrainian border. Due to sanctions, the work of the plant was suspended, the Russian Armed Forces began to use the territory for launching missile strikes on the territory of Ukraine, in particular on Kyiv. As it became known to The Insider, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine was ready to strike at the territory of the enterprise in case of direct participation of Belarus in the aggression against Ukraine, and the only reason why the Armed Forces of Ukraine did not inflict fire damage on the Mozyr Oil Refinery was the lack of direct evidence that the republic participates in military aggression.
Earlier, The Insider learned that Russian troops were gathering at the border near the Belarusian villages of Bukhlichi and Kopani, 170 km from Mozyr. According to sources, a provocation was being prepared - shelling from the territory of Belarus in order to cause return fire. However, it was not possible to confirm this information at that time.
