President Alexander Lukashenko has ordered Belarusian soldiers to deploy with Russian forces near Ukraine in response to what he said was a clear threat to Belarus from Kyiv and its Western backers.

The remarks from Lukashenko, who has been in power in Belarus since 1994, suggest another potential escalation of the war in Ukraine, with a possible combined Russian-Belarus joint force being sent into northern Ukraine.

"Strikes on the territory of Belarus are not just being discussed in Ukraine today, but are also being planned," Lukashenko said at a meeting on security, without providing evidence for the claim. "Their owners are pushing them to start a war against Belarus to drag us there."

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"We have been preparing for this for decades. If necessary, we will respond," Lukashenko said, adding that he had spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin about the situation when the leaders met in St Petersburg.

Lukashenko said he had agreed with Putin to deploy a regional military group, and had started pulling forces together two days ago, just two days after an attack on Russia's road and rail bridge to Crimea that led Putin to launch a wave of missile strikes on Ukraine.

Lukashenko said that a warning was delivered to Belarus through unofficial channels that Ukraine planned "Crimean Bridge 2," though he did not give details.

"My answer was simple: Tell the president of Ukraine and the other lunatics: if they touch one meter of our territory then the Crimean Bridge will seem to them like a walk in the park."

Belarus's army has about 60,000 people. Earlier this year, Belarus sent 6 battalion-tactical groups, totaling several thousand people, to its border with Ukraine. On Sunday, the head of Belarus's border guards accused Kyiv of provocations along the frontier. 

Russian forces used Belarus as a staging post for their military operations in Ukraine, sending troops and equipment into northern Ukraine from bases in Belarus. 

However, while there are volunteer battalions, there have been no reports of publicly state-supported Belarusian units fighting in the conflict as of yet.

"Belarus is not going to get involved in a war that's going poorly this late in the game," Liam Collins, a retired U.S. Special Forces Colonel, told CGTN Europe.

Referring to Lukashenko's current engagement in Ukraine as "passive", he said Belarus, "has no desire to get in there, take on additional sanctions, and throw their troops away. This is primarily just rhetoric and political maneuvering at this point."

As for the president's claims that Kyiv is fanning the flames of escalation by threatening Belarus' territory, the ex-U.S. colonel says that once again, this is not the case.

"Absolutely not. Ukraine's not going to escalate the war and invade Belarus - they have no desire to go into Russia proper either. "