Minsk urges citizens to avoid Russia after Moscow blames Ukraine for second Belarusian bus attack

Alexander Volfovich, the state secretary of Belarus’s Security Council, urged Belarusians to avoid traveling to Russia, particularly to border regions.

Volfovich made the appeal after Russian officials said a Ukrainian drone had attacked a tourist bus from Belarus in the Bryansk region. According to Russia’s Investigative Committee, an explosive device detonated “in the immediate vicinity” of the bus, wounding two drivers and a passenger.

“We did warn about this,” Volfovich said. “The president spoke out repeatedly and said: dear Belarusians, please refrain from traveling to Russia right now, especially to the border regions. Drones fall there every day, and these kinds of bad incidents happen. We didn’t close the borders; it’s up to each person to decide whether to go.”

He said this involved “completely private trips by individual Belarusian citizens who decided to go to Anapa on the Black Sea,” adding that those travelers were putting themselves in danger. “No one will be able to guarantee your safety on such trips until the special military operation ends. You have to use your own head and make the right decision,” Volfovich added.

As the outlet Zerkalo noted, the Russian and Belarusian versions of events diverge. The Belarusian television network ONT published another statement from Volfovich saying the bus was struck by accident. “This is a bus that happened to be traveling through the Bryansk region and a drone that happened to fall along the road between two highways,” he said. The network later deleted the quote.

Russian authorities maintain that Ukraine deliberately targeted the Belarusian bus. Russia’s ambassador to Belarus, Boris Gryzlov, was among them.

Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya also urged Belarusians not to travel to Russia. Alexander Lukashenko had not commented on the attack as of publication. Ukraine’s General Staff called the reported drone strike on the bus a staged “provocation.”

This is the second passenger bus from Belarus to come under attack in Russia’s Bryansk region. On June 17, Russian authorities claimed, a Ukrainian drone struck another bus. It was carrying 44 people, including 28 children. They were members of a youth soccer team from a sports school in the Belarusian city of Rechytsa who had been sent on a trip to Gelendzhik. A woman accompanying the team was killed in the strike. Six people, including four children, were injured, according to Russian officials. Ukrainian security services called the accusations a Moscow-staged provocation.