The two men mentioned the Ukrainian counter-offensive, the fall of the Wagner Group, but also security “in the region”.
A meeting at the top. This Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin met his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko for the first time since this close Moscow ally helped negotiate an end to the Wagner militia uprising last month, according to images released by Minsk.
No counter-offensive
A video released by the Belarusian President’s press service shows the two men arriving together at a palace in St. Petersburg, northwestern Russia, where they are scheduled to hold bilateral talks.
During the meeting, which is expected to last two days, Vladimir Putin said the ongoing Ukrainian counter-offensive to repel Russian forces from Ukraine had “failed,” according to Russian news agencies.
“There is no counter-offensive,” said Lukashenko, according to the TASS news agency, before being interrupted by the Kremlin’s strongman, who launched: “There is one, but it failed.”
At this meeting, the two men will also talk about security “in the region”.
The case of Wagner
Referring to the failed Wagner group uprising, the Belarusian leader assured that he would keep the mercenaries in the center of his country, saying in this regard that Minsk “controls” the situation.
“They demand to go west (…) to Warsaw, Rzeszów,” Lukashenko said at first to his Russian counterpart, who smiled slightly. “But of course that I keep them in the center of Belarus, as we agreed,” he added, but said he noticed “their bad mood.”