KYIV — Belarus strongman Alexander Lukashenko urged nearer army cooperation with Russia on Monday throughout a uncommon go to from President Vladimir Putin, who launched his invasion of Ukraine from his neighbor’s territory.
Putin landed in Minsk together with his protection and overseas minister in tow, hours after Russian forces launched a swarm of assault drones at vital infrastructure in Kyiv, which provoked emergency blackouts in a dozen areas.
“Difficult times require us to have political will and to focus on getting results on all topics of the bilateral agenda,” Lukashenko instructed Putin.
“The main issues lately have been defense and security issues,” he added.
The Kremlin has for years sought to deepen integration with Belarus, which depends on Moscow for affordable oil and loans, however Lukashenko had resisted outright unification with Russia regardless of being a key ally.
Speculation mounted forward of the Russian chief’s go to that he would stress Lukashenko to ship troops to Ukraine to combat alongside the Russians after Moscow suffered a string of defeats in almost 10 months of preventing.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, nevertheless, dismissed the reviews “as totally stupid, groundless fabrications.”
‘Open for dialogue’
“Russia and Belarus are open for dialogue with other states, including European ones. I hope that soon they will listen to the voice of reason,” Lukashenko mentioned.
Putin instructed his Belarusian ally that he hoped to deepen financial ties between the international locations through the go to and praised Belarus as “our ally in the truest sense of the word.”
The drone assaults over Ukraine, which wounded three individuals close to Kyiv, got here as Russia mentioned it shot down a number of US-made missiles over its airspace close to Ukraine.
“I first heard the air raid siren… I thought there was going to be a drone attack. For the first time, it scared me,” Natalia Dobrovolska, a 68-year-old resident of Kyiv, instructed AFP.
She described listening to a number of explosions earlier than energy shut off in her constructing in western Kyiv. Officials mentioned Russia had dispatched 35 assault drones nationwide, together with 23 over Kyiv.
Ukraine mentioned it downed 30 of the aerial weapons, together with Iranian-made “Shaheds,” which have pummeled the capital in current weeks.
Mayor Vitali Klitschko mentioned vital infrastructure services have been “damaged” whereas regional authorities mentioned 9 properties had been scarred by the assaults.
Energy operator Ukrenergo introduced that emergency electrical energy outages have been scheduled within the capital and almost a dozen areas.
Belarus border a ‘precedence’
Ukraine has skilled frequent and lethal aerial assaults within the 10 months since Russia invaded in late February.
After a collection of battlefield setbacks and territory misplaced this summer season and autumn, Moscow stepped up its aerial marketing campaign to focus on the nation’s power grid.
With winter setting in, missile and drone assaults have plunged cities across the nation into darkness, and severed water and warmth provides to hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians.
Speaking to the leaders of a number of NATO international locations by way of video hyperlink on Monday, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged Ukraine’s allies to provide its army with extra weapons.
“Russian aggression can and must fail. And our task now is to accelerate it,” he instructed the leaders assembled in Riga.
He mentioned in a late-night tackle Sunday that some 9 million individuals had their electrical energy restored after Russia’s earlier missile barrage final week.
Ukraine has an estimated inhabitants of 40 million.
Before Putin’s go to, Ukraine’s chief additionally described the state of affairs on Ukraine’s border with Russia and Belarus as a “constant priority.”
“We are preparing for all possible defense scenarios,” Zelenskiy mentioned.
Lukashenko, who has been in energy since 1994, is a long-time Kremlin ally and allowed Russian troops to assault Ukraine from his nation on February 24.
Russian-Belarusian army drills
Hours earlier than Putin touched down in Minsk, Russia introduced its forces have been operating army drills with Belarusian forces.
The protection ministry launched footage of drills in Belarus, displaying troopers conducting tank maneuvers, and training artillery and sniper fireplace at a snow-dusted coaching floor.
“From the morning until the evening twilight—there is not a single second of silence at the training grounds of Belarus,” the ministry mentioned.
It didn’t say the place the drills have been going down or how lengthy they’d final.
In October, Belarus introduced the formation of a joint regional pressure with Moscow with a number of thousand Russian servicemen arriving within the ex-Soviet nation, fueling considerations Minsk may additionally ship troops to Ukraine.
On Monday, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov mentioned Ukrainian strikes left round 14,000 individuals with out energy in a district of southern Russia’s Belgorod area. — AFP
