Putin’s visit to Belarus comes as Kyiv has expressed fears that the Russian president will pressure his ally Belarus’ president to join a ground attack on Ukraine
Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Minsk this afternoon to hold talks with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko, Russian state news agency TASS reported.
Putin’s visit to Belarus comes as Kyiv has raised fears that the Russian president plans to pressure Lukashenko into a ground offensive that would open a new front in the war in Ukraine.
In addition, in the last few days in the country the army has been continuously carrying out readiness exercises with war scenarios, while Russian troops deployed in Belarus, on the border with Ukraine, from October as part of a “regional formation”, they will also start conducting high schools.
Fears Belarus will be drawn into Ukraine war as Putin meets Lukashenko https://t.co/qck9ImvSLk
— The Guardian (@guardian) December 19, 2022
Russian state television showed Putin stepping off the plane before being warmly greeted by Lukashenko himself and a welcoming committee on the airport tarmac.
Lukashenko personally meets Putin at the airport in Minsk.
Putin visited Belarus for the first time since June 2019.
Presumably, he arrived to persuade Lukashenko about direct involvement in the war pic.twitter.com/jSW6EN8vIz
— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) December 19, 2022
Putin’s trip to Minsk is the first since 2019 – before the Covid-19 pandemic and after a wave of pro-democracy protests in 2020 that Lukashenko crushed with strong Kremlin support.
Russian forces used Belarus as a rearguard base for their failed attack on Kyiv in February, and recent months have seen activity by Russian and Belarusian military forces.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian news agencies that Belarus is Russia’s “number one ally,” but called “stupid and baseless fiction” claims that Moscow wants to pressure Minsk into joining what the Kremlin calls “special military operation” in Ukraine.
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