For the first time in three years, Russian President Vladimir Putin is traveling to Belarus. He describes his talks with Lukashenko as “very fruitful”. The two countries do not only want to work closely together economically in the future. Ukraine is watching the situation with concern.
Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin has described his talks with Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko as “very fruitful”. His host in Minsk, on the other hand, spoke of “constructive and productive” talks, as the Russian state agency TASS reported after the talks in Minsk concluded. At their meeting, both heads of state spoke out in favor of closer military cooperation between the two countries.
In these “difficult times” cooperation must be deepened, Lukashenko said at the beginning of the conversation with Putin. According to Putin, both Moscow and Minsk successfully resisted Western sanctions pressure and attempts to isolate Russia and Belarus. “We are coordinating our steps to minimize the impact of illegal restrictions on our economy,” Putin said. “And we do that quite convincingly and effectively.”
However, both countries are open to dialogue with the West. “Russia and Belarus are open to dialogue with other states, including European ones,” Lukashenko said. At the same time, he called on Western countries to “listen to the voice of reason”. Putin addressed issues of economic cooperation between the allied countries before the meeting was broadcast on Russian television.
Lukashenko welcomed Putin with bread and salt on a red carpet at Minsk Airport in the morning. This was shown on Monday by the pro-government Belarusian Telegram channel Pool Pervogo. It is Putin’s first visit to Belarus in three years. It came on the day the Russian army announced it would be holding “tactical” military maneuvers there.
The Russian Ministry of Defense had published images of artillery exercises with tanks in a snow-covered landscape in Belarus. “From dawn to dusk, there is not a moment’s silence on the training grounds in Belarus,” the ministry said.
The Ukrainian government recently expressed fears that there could be a Russian offensive on Kyiv from Belarusian territory in the first few months of 2023, after Belarus announced in October that it was setting up a joint military alliance with Russia. Thousands of Russian soldiers are to be stationed in Belarus for this purpose. However, Lukashenko had repeatedly stated that he was not planning to send soldiers to Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his video message on Sunday that “protecting the border with Russia and Belarus” was a “fixed priority”. “We are preparing for all possible defensive scenarios,” he added.
According to Ukrainian sources, the Ukrainian capital Kyiv was hit by a series of drone attacks by the Russian army on Monday night. “23 enemy drones were registered over the capital” and “18 of them were shot down,” the Kiev military administration said on Telegram. The Russian armed forces used Iranian-made Shahed drones.
According to the state electricity supplier Ukrenergo, the night-time attacks were primarily aimed at “energy plants across the country”. “Emergency shutdowns were then initiated” in Kyiv and ten other regions, including in Sumi, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhia.
The Russian Defense Ministry said the Russian army had shot down four US-made missiles in the airspace over the border region with Ukraine. “Four American HARM anti-radar missiles were shot down in the airspace over the Belgorod region,” Moscow said. According to Russian sources, the region is regularly attacked by the Ukrainian armed forces.
