Moscow: The Kremlin announced that the meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko will take place on Sunday, two days after Moscow issued a warning that any aggression against its neighbor and steadfast ally would be seen as an attack on Russia.
In response to the Wagner Group's arrival in Belarus earlier this week, Poland decided to move military units closer to its border with Belarus. Putin vowed that Moscow would use all available means to respond to any hostility directed at Minsk.
According to the Kremlin, Lukashenko is in Russia on a working trip and will speak with Putin about how to advance their "strategic partnership."
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In February 2022, Lukashenko permitted Moscow to use Belarusian territory to begin its full-scale invasion of Ukraine while refraining from sending his own troops there. Since then, he has met with Putin frequently.
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Since then, the two nations have conducted numerous joint military drills, and in June, Lukashenko agreed to let Russia use his nation as a base for its nuclear arsenal, a decision that was roundly criticized by the West.
Fears in Kiev that Putin would pressure Lukashenko to join a new ground offensive and open a new front in Russia's faltering invasion of Ukraine were stoked by the perception that Lukashenko, a pariah in the West, depends on Putin for his survival.
Wagner Group mercenaries have reportedly begun training Belarusian special forces at a military range just a few miles from the country's border with NATO member Poland, according to the Belarusian defense ministry on Thursday.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of Wagner, was seen in a video on Wednesday welcoming his fighters to Belarus and ordering them to build up their strength for Wagner's operations in Africa while training the Belarusian army. He told them they would not participate in the war in Ukraine any further for the time being.