 Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko inadvertently confirmed on Monday that four military aircraft had been shot down over Russia last week near the borders of Ukraine in Belarus, saying Minsk had responded by putting its armed forces on high alert. The incident came as Ukraine prepares for a counteroffensive. Comersant reported on Saturday that a Russian raiding party comprising an Su-34 fighter bomber and Su-35 fighter and two Mi-8 helicopters had been shot down in an ambush near Klynsi in Russia's Bryansk region. The Russian state news agency test set on Saturday that a Russian Su-34 warplane had crashed, but did not specify a cause and cited emergency services as saying an engine fire had brought down a helicopter. The Pulpovogo Telegram channel, a Belarusian state outlet that reports on Lukashenko's activities, released a video on Monday of the leader visiting an Air Force command base and quoted him as saying, three days after the events near us I mean in the Bryansk region when four aircraft were shot down. We are forced to respond. Since then, we, our troops, have been on high alert.