KYIV —
Belarus’ President
Alexander Lukashenko urged closer military cooperation with
Russia on Monday during a rare visit from President Vladimir Putin, who
launched his invasion of Ukraine from his neighbor’s territory.
اضافة اعلان
Putin landed in
Minsk with his ministers of defense and foreign affairs in tow, hours after
Russian forces launched a swarm of attack drones at critical infrastructure in
Kyiv, which provoked emergency blackouts in a dozen regions.
“Difficult times
require us to have political will and to focus on getting results on all topics
of the bilateral agenda,” Lukashenko told Putin.
“The main issues
lately have been defense and security issues,” he added.
The Kremlin has for
years sought to deepen integration with Belarus, which relies on Moscow for
cheap oil and loans, but Lukashenko had resisted outright unification with
Russia despite being a key ally.
Speculation mounted
ahead of the Russian leader’s visit that he would pressure Lukashenko to send
troops to Ukraine to fight alongside the Russians after Moscow suffered a
string of defeats in nearly 10 months of fighting.
Kremlin spokesman
Dmitry Peskov, however, dismissed the reports “as totally stupid, groundless
fabrications”.
‘Open for dialogue’
“Russia and Belarus are open for dialogue with other states, including
European ones. I hope that soon they will listen to the voice of reason,”
Lukashenko said.
Putin told his
Belarusian ally that he hoped to deepen economic ties between the countries
during the visit and praised Belarus as “our ally in the truest sense of the
word”.
Lukashenko, who has
been in power since 1994, is a long-time Kremlin ally and allowed Russian
troops to attack Ukraine from his country on February 24.
Hours before Putin
touched down in Minsk,
Russia announced its forces were running military drills
with Belarusian forces.
The defense
ministry released footage of drills in Belarus, showing soldiers conducting
tank maneuvers, and practicing artillery and sniper fire at a snow-dusted
training ground.
“From the morning
until the evening twilight — there is not a single second of silence at the
training grounds of Belarus,” the ministry said.
It did not say
where the drills were taking place or how long they would last.
In October, Belarus
announced the formation of a joint regional force with Moscow with several
thousand Russian servicemen arriving in the ex-Soviet country, fueling
concerns Minsk could also send troops to Ukraine.
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