Belarus demands Ukraine act against new airspace violations

(Reuters) -Belarus' Foreign Ministry summoned the Ukrainian charge d'affaires on Saturday and told Kyiv to act against airspace violations after Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said a dozen Ukrainian drones had been destroyed in its airspace, Russia's Tass news agency reported.

A ministry statement, reported by Tass, said if Ukraine failed to prevent the situation from repeating, Belarus would call into question the "appropriateness" of Ukraine's diplomatic representation in Minsk.

"The Belarusian side demanded that comprehensive measures be taken to rule out any such future incidents in the future which could lead to further escalation of the situation in the region," Tass quoted the ministry's press service as saying.

"It was pointed out...that if Ukraine's diplomatic representation in Belarus cannot have an effect on preventing such provocations, the Belarusian side will raise the issue of the appropriateness of its continued presence in Minsk."

Lukashenko earlier said air defence forces on Friday destroyed several of "about a dozen" Ukrainian drones after they violated Belarusian airspace in the eastern Mogilev region bordering Russia.

He said others were later destroyed near the Russian city of Yaroslavl. The Russian Defence Ministry said Russian forces had intercepted six drones in the Yaroslavl region.

(Reporting by Ron Popeski; Editing by Josie Kao)