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Authoritarian Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko said on Thursday that his military would only join Russia’s war in Ukraine if Belarus was attacked on its own soil – laying down a promise ahead of a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Friday bright red line.
Lukashenko’s remarks at a press conference in Minsk seemed strategically designed to forestall any request that he deploy forces in Ukraine to help Russia overcome its string of military failures since the invasion began nearly a year ago.
In comments disguised as a stern warning to Ukraine and other Western nations, Lukashenko said, “I am ready to fight alongside the Russians from the territory of Belarus on only one occasion: if at least one soldier enters Belarus, kill my people.” “
“If they commit aggression against Belarus, the answer will come immediately,” he said. “The war will take on a whole different dimension.”
The maneuvering of Lukashenko, arguably Putin’s closest ally among world leaders, has highlighted the difficulties that Russia’s war – and its military failures – have created for its regional neighbors. Other countries, like Kazakhstan, have been swamped by Russians fleeing conscription, trying to avoid becoming embroiled in Moscow’s struggle with the West, which has imposed many rounds of harsh sanctions to undermine Russia’s war machine.
On Thursday, Russia continued its brutal bombardment of Ukraine’s infrastructure with a nighttime barrage of dozens of missiles, including 12 Kh-22 ballistic missiles, according to Ukraine’s Air Force, which are virtually impossible for Ukrainians to intercept with air defenses.
“These are these big, very powerful missiles that have a 950-kilogram warhead,” said Yuriy Ihnat, an Air Force spokesman. “Twelve were released today in different regions. In particular, four missiles hit Pavlohrad, as well as Konotop, the Kremenchug oil refinery and other regions were also hit.”
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Ukrainian officials said a 79-year-old woman was killed and at least seven people injured in a strike in Pavlohrad, a city between the Dnieper River and the eastern Donetsk region. Infrastructure was damaged in the western city of Lviv, but no casualties were reported.
“The enemy is waging a terrorist war against the people using extremely destructive missiles. And they’re not accurate,” Ihnat said, adding that the Kh-22 missiles often miss their target by as much as a third of a mile, or the length of about three city blocks.
In recent weeks, Kiev officials have warned that Russia could strike again from Belarus, possibly into western Ukraine, in an attempt to block arms shipments from the United States and other NATO countries.
However, Lukashenko’s comments on Thursday indicate that Russia will not receive active support from the Belarusian military in the event of such an attack. Many of his comments parroted Kremlin rhetoric. He blamed Ukraine and the West for causing the war and accused the United States of prolonging the conflict, saying Washington does not want peace.
“It’s not an invasion; the Ukrainian authorities provoked this operation,” said Lukashenko. “Had they reached an agreement with Russia, there would have been no war.”
“There was no invasion,” he continued. “I believe this is protecting the interests of Russia and the people, the Russians, who live there.”
Lukashenko insisted Belarus was “a peaceful nation” even though it allowed its territory to be used as a theater of war. A year ago, Russian forces in Belarus invaded Ukraine from the north in what ended up being a disastrous attempt to capture the Ukrainian capital, Kiev. These troops were repulsed and later fled back to Belarus.
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Ever since Russia suffered repeated battlefield defeats and heavy casualties that necessitated reinforcements and an unpopular military mobilization, Lukashenko never offered to send his troops to war, despite increasing military cooperation in Moscow and Minsk, including exercises leading to more Russian-led troops stationed in Belarus.
Lukashenko’s government has faced a spate of Western sanctions since August 2020, when he claimed to have won a new term in elections widely believed to be fraudulent. Belarus is heavily dependent on Russia for economic and security aid, but Lukashenko has so far proven unwilling to sacrifice his own soldiers to help Putin achieve his goals, including the illegal annexation of four Ukrainian territories.
As Lukashenko prepared to meet Putin, Ukraine and Russia conducted their latest prisoner swap on Thursday, trading with about 100 fighters, according to the Russian Defense Ministry and Ukrainian officials. Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukraine’s presidential administration, said the exchange included 63 fighters who holed up at the Azovstal Steelworks while fighting fiercely against Russian forces before finally surrendering last spring.
Senior Ukrainian officials this week also joined the renewed global focus on the threat posed by unmanned aerial balloons and their potential use for espionage and disruption.
Officials said they routinely shoot down small objects that could be used by Russia for espionage, but mostly they appear to be decoys designed to divert the Ukrainian military’s attention and ammunition from more important targets.
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On Wednesday, Kiev’s Municipal Military Administration said on its Telegram channel that “about six enemy air targets” were sighted over the Ukrainian capital, triggering an air alert.
According to preliminary information, the statement said, they were “balloons moving under the influence of the wind” and “could carry corner reflectors and certain intelligence equipment.”
“Most of these probes were shot down,” the military administration said. Russian officials have not confirmed they launched these or any other balloons.
The growing global interest was sparked by the discovery last month of a Chinese spy balloon over the United States, which the US military shot down after tracking it across the country.
At least three other objects believed to be balloons were also shot down in US or Canadian airspace, officials said.
Ihnat, spokesman for the Air Force, said the focus should remain on Russia’s destructive and deadly airstrikes, not balloons. “I would not play up this issue,” he said. “They’re not new. These are your grandfather’s methods, invented during the Soviet Union.”
Ebel reported from London; Stern from Kyiv, Ukraine; and Abbakumova from Riga, Latvia.
War in Ukraine: What you need to know
The newest: Fighting in eastern Ukraine continues while Russian forces make slight progress in their attempt to encircle the town of Bakhmut. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has asked Western allies for fighter jets as Russia launches a spring offensive. Read the latest here.
The fight: Russia has been targeting Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure with rocket and drone attacks since October, causing frequent power, heating and water cuts in the country. Despite fierce fighting, neither side has made significant gains for months. Western allies agreed on a new wave of sophisticated weaponry, including Leopard tanks, in hopes it could change the balance of the battlefield.
A war year: Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war has sparked a historic exodus of his own people, with data showing at least 500,000 and perhaps nearly 1 million have fled Russia since the conflict in Ukraine began. Despite this and extensive sanctions, the Russian economy has remained more resilient than many expected. However, there are signs that Putin’s luck is running out.
Photos: Washington Post photographers have been on the ground since the war began – here is some of their most impressive work.
How can you help: Here are ways people in the United States can support the people of Ukraine, and what people around the world have donated.
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