Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) and Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko (R) at the Grand Kremlin Palace on May 25, 2023 in Moscow, Russia.
Contributor|Getty Images News|Getty Images
Russian President Vladimir Putin stated Ukraine’s counteroffensive “has failed” as he hosted Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, his close ally, for talks inSt Petersburg on Sunday.
“There is no counteroffensive,” Russian news companies priced estimate Lukashenko as stating.
Putin responded: “It exists, but it has failed.”
Ukraine started its long-anticipated counter-offensive last month however has actually up until now made just little gains versus well-entrenched Russian forces who manage more than a sixth of its area after almost 17 months of war.
U.S. General Mark Milley, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, stated on Tuesday the Ukrainian drive was “far from a failure” however would be long, tough and bloody.
Read more about Russia’s war on Ukraine:
A Telegram channel connected to Lukashenko estimated him as stating in a jocular tone that fighters of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group who are now training Belarus’s army were eager to press throughout the border into NATO member Poland.
“The Wagner guys have started to stress us — they want to go west. ‘Let’s go on a trip to Warsaw and Rzeszow’,” he was priced estimate as stating. There was no indicator that Lukashenko was seriously amusing that concept.
On Thursday, the Belarusian defense ministry stated Wagner fighters had actually begun to train Belarusian unique forces at a military variety simply a couple of miles from the Polish border.
Poland is moving additional soldiers towards the border with Belarus in reaction to the arrival of the Wagner forces who moved there after staging a temporary mutiny in Russia last month.
Putin, in reaction, alerted Poland on Friday that any hostility versus Belarus would be thought about an attack onRussia He stated Moscow would utilize all indicates it needs to respond to any hostility towards Minsk.
Useful partner
Russia and Belarus are connected in a collaboration called the “union state” in which Moscow is without a doubt the dominant gamer. But Lukashenko has actually shown his effectiveness to Putin because the February 2022 intrusion of Ukraine, permitting Russia to utilize his nation as a launch pad at the start of the war.
He has consequently let Russian forces train at his military bases, performed regular joint workouts and taken shipment of tactical nuclear weapons which Putin has actually put in Belarus in a relocation broadly condemned in the West.
The Kremlin likewise credited Lukashenko with brokering last month’s offer to end the Wagner mutiny, which Putin stated had briefly threatened to tip Russia into civil war.
Putin stated the 2 leaders would fulfill on Sunday and Monday and would talk about security and other problems “in great detail and in-depth.”
Lukashenko has actually not devoted his little army to sign up with Russia’s war, however the threat of a brand-new attack from Belarusian soil forces Ukraine to safeguard its northern border, extending its forces as it attempts to step up its counteroffensive in the east and south of the nation.
