Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko initially denied involvement of the Belarusian military in the conflict at the time,[20] and the Belarusian Ministry of Defense did not comment on the reports of missiles launched from Belarus hitting any Ukrainian targets.[21] On 27 February, however, Alexander Lukashenko acknowledged that projectiles were launched by Russia from Belarus against Ukraine, but commented this was a "forced step".[22] Lukashenko also announced that he would not order Belarus's troops to join the Russians to Ukraine,[23] despite reports they already were in Ukraine, nevertheless he decided to move more forces to the Ukrainian border on 1 March.[24]