Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed Ukraine’s counteroffensive “has failed” as he welcomed Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, a close friend, to St. Petersburg for talks on Sunday.
“There is no counteroffensive,” Russian news agencies quoted Lukashenko as saying.
Putin replied: “It exists, but it has failed.”
Ukraine launched its long-awaited counter-offensive last month, but has achieved only minor gains against well-entrenched Russian soldiers that hold more than a sixth of its land after over 17 months of conflict.
The US Joint Chiefs of Staff chair, General Mark Milley, stated on Tuesday that the Ukrainian drive was “far from a failure,” but that it will be lengthy, hard, and bloody.
A Lukashenko-linked Telegram channel paraphrased him as suggesting, jokingly, that warriors from Russia’s Wagner mercenary squad, who are now training Belarus’ army, were eager to advance across the border into NATO member Poland.
“The Wagners have begun to worry us; they want to go west.” “‘Let’s go to Warsaw and Rzeszow,’ he said,” he was quoted as saying. There was no sign that Lukashenko was genuinely considering it.
The Belarusian defense ministry announced on Thursday that Wagner fighters had begun training Belarusian special forces at a military range just a few miles from the Polish border.
Poland is sending reinforcements to the border with Belarus in response to the arrival of the Wagner forces, who relocated there after sparking a brief mutiny in Russia last month.
Putin responded on Friday by warning Poland that any aggression against Belarus would be considered an attack on Russia. He stated that Moscow would use all available methods to respond to any violence toward Minsk.
Russia and Belarus are tied in a collaboration known as the “union state,” in which Moscow is by far the most powerful component. But, since the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Lukashenko has proven valuable to Putin, allowing Russia to use his country as a launch pad at the outset of the war.
He has since allowed Russian soldiers to train at his military sites, held frequent joint exercises, and received tactical nuclear weapons, which Putin has deployed in Belarus, a move widely criticised in the West.
The Kremlin also credited Lukashenko with mediating last month’s agreement to terminate the Wagner mutiny, which Putin claimed threatened to plunge Russia into civil war.
Putin stated that the two leaders will meet on Sunday and Monday to discuss security and other topics “in great detail and depth.”
Lukashenko has not committed his little army to Russia’s conflict, but the threat of a new invasion from Belarusian soil pushes Ukraine to defend its northern border, stretching its forces as it tries to ratchet up its counteroffensive in the country’s east and south.
