MOSCOW: Belarusian air defence forces destroyed several targets over their territory on Friday that were launched from Ukraine, most likely drones, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Saturday.

According to Lukashenko, “about a dozen” of targets violated Belarusian airspace in the eastern Mogilev region bordering Russia making Minsk to put its air force and air defence force on high alert.

“At 19:04 (16:04 GMT) at an altitude of one and a half kilometres and a range of 6.5 kilometres, the air defence forces destroyed several targets over the territory of Belarus. Overnight and this morning, a search for what was destroyed is underway,“ Lukashenko said in a video posted by Belta state news agency.

He added that other targets “were transferred” to Russia and later destroyed near Russia’s city of Yaroslavl.

Earlier on Saturday, Russian Defence Ministry said Russian forces had

intercepted

six drones in the Yaroslavl region.