Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said after a meeting with Vladimir Putin on Friday that the Russian leader would announce a "very good proposal" to end the war in Ukraine, which he said was widely supported by the United States, the BBC quoted him as saying.
Lukashenko, who met with Putin in Moscow for more than five hours, did not reveal what the proposal included, but added that it was presented to US President Donald Trump when he held a summit with Putin in Alaska last month.
"We discussed it with President Putin, but I will not talk about it. The president himself will say," said Lukashenko, a close ally of Putin.
"This is a good proposal for Ukraine, proposals that were heard by Donald Trump in Alaska, among other places, and were taken to Washington for consideration and discussion. A very good proposal," Lukashenko told Russian television reporter Pavel Zarubin.
"If the Ukrainians do not accept these proposals, it will be like at the beginning of the special military operation," he added, using Moscow's term for the invasion of Ukraine. "It will be even worse; they will lose Ukraine."
Russia has previously insisted on terms that Ukraine rejects as tantamount to surrender, including the handover of more territory, Kiev's abandonment of NATO membership ambitions and the imposition of limits on the size of its armed forces.
Lukashenko spoke three days after Trump, in an unexpected turn of events, said that Ukraine was capable of regaining all of its lost territory - amounting to nearly a fifth of the country - and needed to act now because the Russian economy was in deep trouble.
The Kremlin dismissed the comments, saying that Trump had just met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and said he had been influenced by Zelensky's view of the conflict. Zelensky said Putin was pretending to negotiate but had no real interest in peace.
"To avoid losing all of Ukraine, Zelensky should not just negotiate, but agree to favorable terms - terms that are generally approved by the Americans," Lukashenko said.
He also suggested that he, Putin and Zelensky, as leaders of three Slavic countries, sit down and reach an agreement.
Ukraine has previously said it wants a meeting between Zelensky and Putin, but Russia has said that can only happen if the Ukrainian leader agrees to come to Moscow.
Lukashenko meets with Putin more often than any other foreign leader and supports his war in Ukraine, although without committing his own troops to combat.
He has been isolated for years by Western sanctions over his military role and human rights abuses. But in recent weeks, Trump has called him, praised him as a "highly respected" leader and sent an envoy to Belarus for talks that have led to the release of more than 50 political prisoners.
American officials say the Trump administration hopes to pull Belarus out of Moscow's geopolitical orbit, if only to some extent. But some political analysts see that as unlikely, given Lukashenko's heavy dependence - political, economic and military - on his much larger neighbor.
Underscoring the closeness of their relationship, Belarus and Russia held joint military exercises this month. On Friday, Lukashenko proposed building a nuclear power plant in eastern Belarus that could provide electricity to Russian-controlled parts of Ukraine.