On Monday, Alexander Lukashenko, the president of Belarus, told Russia’s defense minister that he wanted guarantees that Russia would protect his country if it was attacked, the state-owned BelTA news agency reported.
BelTA quoted Lukashenko as making the remarks to Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu during a meeting in the Belarusian capital Minsk. Lukashenko was quoted as saying that he had earlier discussed the matter with Russian President Vladimir Putin who he said had agreed with him that such security guarantees were necessary and needed to be formalized.
In general, it sounded at the talks with Putin that in the case of aggression against Belarus, the Russian Federation would protect Belarus as its own territory. These are the kind of security guarantees we need, Lukashenko was quoted as saying.
Belarus, which currently hosts a contingent of Russian forces, has proposed assistance to Moscow during its military campaign in Ukraine which Russia calls “a special military operation.”
In the war’s earliest days, Minsk allowed Moscow to utilize its region to launch an ultimately unsuccessful invasion of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv. Since late last year, a flurry of military drills and visits from high-level Russian officials have sparked speculation that Belarus may formally join a new attack on Ukraine.
Lukashenko has consistently rejected such purposes but has said that Belarus will respond to any attacks on its territory or tries to foment unrest.
