Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko are set to meet in person this weekend, at a time when a major joint military drill they are conducting near Belarus’ border with Ukraine has sent tensions soaring that conflict may be imminent.
Mr. Lukashenko, who has moved closer to the Kremlin as Western nations criticize his increasingly authoritarian moves, suggested that tens of thousands of Russian troops now in his country for the military training maneuvers may not be leaving immediately when the exercises conclude Sunday. Mr. Putin and top Russian military officials have repeatedly said the Russian deployment on Ukraine‘s northern border is temporary and accused the Biden administration and NATO of hyping the exercise as an excuse to provoke a war.
“Listen, this is our business. We will withdraw them when the Russian president and I decide and when the exercise ends,” Mr. Lukashenko told a visiting Ukrainian politician in Minsk, the state-controlled BelTA news service reported. “It is up to us to make the decision: This is our territory.”
The Belarusian leader, who complained that recent U.S. and Western troop deployments to NATO countries in the region were a prime cause of the tensions, also said he and Mr. Putin would meet in the next few days, with the status of the Russian troops in Belarus to be decided then. It was not clear where the meeting will be held.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed the meeting was planned “by the end of this week,” according to the Russian TASS news service, while also hinting that full withdrawal of an estimated 30,000 Russian forces from Belarus was not a done deal.
“Let us be patient, let us wait until the meeting,” Mr. Peskov said. “We hope that the two presidents will also make a joint statement after the talks.”
Beefed-up Russian army and naval forces already have Ukraine surrounded on three sides, as Mr. Putin has said Kyiv must drop its hopes of joining NATO and has more generally demanded the Western military alliance pull back its forces and weaponry across Russia‘s long western border with Europe.
But the Belarus exercises, supposedly lasting 10 days and wrapping up Feb. 20, have been a particular point of concern because they have brought Russian forces and high-end weapons just 130 miles down a highway from the Ukrainian capital.