Lukashenko says terrorists turned toward Ukrainian border because of Belarusian roadblocks

Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said the terrorists who fled after attacking a Moscow concert hall on Friday turned toward the Ukrainian border because they “understood that they couldn’t get into Belarus.”

Russia’s Federal Security Service reported on Saturday that it had apprehended four of the suspects in Russia’s Bryansk region, which borders both Belarus and Ukraine.

According to Lukashenko, Belarusian security forces set up roadblocks, including at the Russian border. “Therefore, there was no way for [the terrorists] to get into Belarus. They saw this, so they turned away and went toward the Russia-Ukraine border,” Belarusian state-run news agency Belta quotes Lukashenko as saying.

Lukashenko also said that he spoke with Putin about the closure of the Belarusian border, which the Russian president had allegedly requested.