Putin and Lukashenko strengthen ties but remain silent on the Ukraine war

The Independence Palace of Minsk, in Belarus, was this Monday the scene of the meeting between the Russian president, Vladimir Putinand its Belarusian counterpart, Alexander Lukashenko.

This meeting, the first in the Belarusian capital since 2019, was held just as the ten months of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and at a time when rumors are growing about a possible increase in the involvement of Lukashenko in the conflict under pressure from Moscow.

During the bilateral summit, both leaders discussed the ties that unite both powers, but avoided speaking –at least for the public– about the war in the neighboring country.

“We’ve just summarized all of our work in an expanded format and found that we’ve strayed a bit from government issues. But we’ve rectified and discussed the whole set of Russian-Belarusian relations. Social and economic issues,” the Belarusian president said at a press conference.

For his part, Putin stressed that both countries “safely minimize and effective the influence of sanctions on their economies”, according to statements collected by efe.

Lukashenko has repeatedly renounced directly participating in the war, but, de facto, he has collaborated by ceding his territory as a platform so that the Kremlin forces could begin their “special military operation” in February.

Without going any further, last October, Russia and Belarus created a deployed joint military unit in the former Soviet republic. A group made up of 9,000 troops that last week carried out maneuvers a few kilometers from the Ukrainian border.

The rapprochement between the two powers and the increase in military activity in recent months has generated concern in the international community. Especially since the Ukrainian authorities and some think tank Westerners, like the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), expect Moscow to launch another offensive on kyiv in the coming months. An attack for him could count, again, with Belarus.

In this sense, it is not surprising that the summit between Putin and Lukashenko has set off all the alarm bells: it was expected that the russian leader put pressure on his closest ally to agree to take part in hostilities.

[Putin ambiciona invadir Kiev en 2023 mientras Bielorrusia despliega sus tropas en la frontera]

“Our objective today is to take stock of the work of our governments in different areas, first of all, the economic one,” Putin said at the beginning of the meeting in statements collected by efe.

Previously, the Russian government had ruled out that it was a trip to convince Minsk to assume a more active role in the conflict. In fact, the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskovcalled the information “unfounded” and “stupid”, according to the news agency RIA Novosti.

Ukraine prepares

For its part, Ukraine, on the eve of the summit between Putin and Lukashenko, announced Sunday night that it is preparing on the Belarusian border “for all possible defense scenarios“. He was the president of the country, Volodimir Zelenskywho in his daily speech recalled that “the protection of the border with Russia and Belarus is a constant priority.”

“We are preparing for all possible defense scenarios. Whoever inclines Minsk to whatever will not help it like any other sick idea in this war against Ukraine and the Ukrainians,” Zelensky added.