Belarus—which played a critical role in ending last week’s aborted mutiny against the Kremlin by the leader of Russia’s Wagner Group—has returned to the spotlight.   A key Russian ally, the country made headlines earlier this year when Moscow unveiled plans to station tactical nuclear weapons on Belarusian soil.  On June 27, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko…

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Moscow will start deploying tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus when the necessary special storage facilities in the former Soviet republic are completed early next month. The announcement comes several months after Putin first described plans to move tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus in March, pointing to U.S….

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has promised nuclear weapons to any other country that wanted to join the Union State of Russia and Belarus. Lukashenko, a staunch ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, made the remarks in an interview on Kremlin state television on Sunday, saying it must be “strategically understood” that Minsk and Moscow have…

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko met with the head of the Moscow-backed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), drawing spirited protests from Ukrainian officials. Kyiv and its Western allies reject the legitimacy of the DPR and view the Donetsk region as a Russian-occupied territory. In a statement, Ukraine’s foreign ministry condemned the meeting between Lukashenko and DPR head…

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin presided over an April 6 meeting in Moscow held to discuss the “Union State” treaty between the two countries. In effect since 1999, the Union State treaty is aimed at cementing economic and defense ties between the two former Soviet republics. “Russia and Belarus are stepping…

Strategic allies Russia and Belarus began holding wide-ranging joint military drills on Jan. 16, according to official statements from both countries. The exercises, which are set to continue until Feb. 1, will likely fuel fears of a possible Russian advance on Kyiv, which sits only 95 miles south of the Belarusian border. According to the…

Russian officials have soundly rejected a proposal by Ukraine’s foreign minister to convene a peace summit between the two warring parties sometime in February. Leonid Slutsky, head of the Russian State Duma’s international affairs committee, described the proposal—under which Russia would have to submit to a “war-crimes tribunal”—as “a smokescreen.” “Ukraine still isn’t ready to…

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Minsk on Dec. 19 for a one-day “working visit,” during which he is slated to hold talks with his Belarusian counterpart, Alexander Lukashenko. Putin was accompanied on the trip by Sergey Shoigu and Sergey Lavrov, his ministers of defense and foreign affairs, respectively. The Russian president last visited Belarus,…

The Australian government has placed new sanctions on Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, members of his family, as well as 22 Russian “propagandists and disinformation operatives.” Meanwhile, an expert has suggested the sanctions may be a form of deterrence against Belarusian forces joining Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “These latest steps, one month into Russia’s invasion of…

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko appeared to stand in front of a map that shows plans to invade the breakaway region of Transnistria in Moldova while he was holding a meeting with officials that was broadcast via state-run media. “At today’s security council meeting, Lukashenko showed what looks like an actual invasion map,” Belarussian journalist Tadeusz Giczan…