Belarus, which shares a long border with Ukraine, hosted Russian President Putin and the top of his army. The West fears that Belarus joining the war could put Ukraine in front of a serious security problem. A Belarusian invasion could undermine all of Ukraine’s achievements in combat so far
Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived last Monday for a state visit to neighboring Belarus, for a ‘working meeting’ with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko, accompanied by senior government officials and some of the senior officers of the Russian army. In Ukraine, they reacted with great concern to the visit and claimed that it may be an attempt by Putin to exert maximum pressure on Lukashenko and force him to join the war against Ukraine.
Belarus shares a long border with Ukraine (in the north) and its joining the war could put Ukraine in front of a serious security problem. To this should be added the fact that the border of Belarus is quite close to the capital of Ukraine, Kyiv, so that a Belarusian invasion could certainly undermine all the achievements of Ukraine in combat so far.
Throughout the period, Lukashenko claims that he has no intention of joining the fighting in Ukraine. However, according to previously published reports, Lukashenko, who was largely controlled by Putin, intended to accept his order and invade Ukraine at the beginning of the war, but the senior officer of the Belarusian army refused to cooperate with the directive, dissuading Lukashenko from the idea, which would have embroiled Belarus in a very difficult way with the international community. And also exacts a heavy price from her on the battlefield.
In recent days, it was also reported about a series of meetings held by the President of Russia with the senior officer of his army, as part of an overall consultation regarding the ways to be taken in the continuation of the fighting against Ukraine. This, after so far Russia has not been able to register any progress during long months of fighting, and all the changes on the ground were to the detriment of Russia, in the form of the withdrawal of Russian forces from Kharkiv and Kherson.
As for this, various commentators believe that these consultations were only lip service, and were intended to spread the responsibility for the failures on the battlefield, so that they would not be placed fully on the head of Putin, who is the commander-in-chief of the Russian army and the man who made all the significant decisions about going to war and the goals to be achieved during which Now Putin is trying, according to the same commentators, to share in the failure of other factors.