Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko left for a working visit to Russia, where he will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin today, Reuters and TASS reported, quoted by BTA.
„Alexander Lukashenko left for a working visit to the Russian Federation. A meeting with Vladimir Putin will take place today. The heads of state are expected to discuss key issues on the agenda of Belarusian-Russian cooperation, as well as the situation in the region and the world“, says a publication on the channel “First Pool“ on the Telegram app.
The meeting comes amid rising tensions between Belarus and Ukraine, where President Volodymyr Zelensky says Putin is trying to push Lukashenko to step up his support for Russia in the conflict, Reuters reported.
Moscow and Minsk deny this, with Belarus saying Ukraine and the West are fueling the tensions. Lukashenko said on Tuesday he had met with Zelensky's representatives and warned them not to try to drag his country into the war.
Putin and Lukashenko are close allies and meet frequently. The Kremlin accused Ukraine of threatening Belarus' sovereignty after Zelensky last Friday gave Minsk a week to remove signal relay stations that he says are used to direct Russian attacks. On Wednesday, the Ukrainian president said the stations had stopped working, although this information has not yet been confirmed by independent sources, Reuters notes.
Russia denied days ago that it was pressuring Belarus to support an expansion of the war in Ukraine, and Minsk said that the West was trying to draw it into the conflict, Reuters reported.
The former Soviet republic is of strategic importance to all countries because of its close ties with Moscow. In addition, Belarus borders Russia, Ukraine and three NATO countries.
As Russian forces struggle to advance on the front line and Ukraine bombards targets deep inside Russian territory with drones, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly stated that he believes Moscow wants Belarus to engage more actively on the Russian side.
Yesterday, the “Wall Street Journal“ reported that Russia had sought to use Belarus as a launching pad for stepping up attacks on Ukraine and threatened to cut off financial support for its neighbor if Minsk did not agree. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded that the report “does not correspond to reality” and that Belarus is “our (Russia’s) closest ally.”
On the other hand, Belarusian Defense Minister Viktor Khrenin said that the West was actually stoking tensions.
“The situation on our borders is extremely unstable and continues to deteriorate. NATO is increasing its military presence near them, modernizing its infrastructure, neighboring countries are increasing their military budgets, and politicians are making increasingly harsh militaristic statements,” Khrenin said in a speech to graduating military officers. "Efforts to continue and even expand the hot conflict ignited by the West in Ukraine are ongoing. Today we are clearly aware of a clear attempt to drag Belarus into the war," the Belarusian minister added.
European countries categorically reject Russian accusations that they are responsible for the war in Ukraine, against which Russia launched a large-scale invasion in 2022.
Last Friday, Zelensky said that signal relay stations in Belarus were being used to direct Russian drone attacks on Ukraine. He gave Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko a week to remove them, adding: "If he doesn't do it, we will." Zelensky said yesterday that the stations had stopped functioning.
Although Lukashenko has not sent Belarusian troops to fight on Russia's side, he has allowed President Vladimir Putin to use Belarus as a launching pad for his invasion of Ukraine and later agreed to Russia deploying tactical nuclear missiles on Belarusian territory.
Belarus also regularly holds joint military exercises with Russia and allows Moscow to use its military bases and training grounds.
While Moscow is the leading partner in relations between the two countries, it also relies on Minsk - for example, Belarus has two large oil refineries to process Russian oil and supply Russia with gasoline, diesel and jet fuel.
This supply chain has become even more important this year after Ukraine stepped up attacks on Russian refineries, leading to severe fuel shortages.
In the first five months of the year, rail shipments of gasoline from Belarusian oil companies to Russia increased almost 13 times compared to the same period last year, and those of Belarusian diesel tripled, according to Reuters sources.