Putin To Visit Lukashenko For First Time In 3 Years

Russian President Vladimir Putin is going to visit Belarus and meet the country's self-proclaimed President Aleksandr Lukashenko. This was reported by the Interfax agency on Monday, June 20.

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin announced the upcoming meeting between Putin and Lukashenko. He announced that this will happen at the Forum of Regions of the Union State.

"The upcoming Forum of Regions with the participation of the presidents of Russia and Belarus will give an even deeper new impetus to interregional cooperation," Mishustin said.

For the first time since the beginning of the aggression against Ukraine, Putin will travel outside Russia. Also, the President of the Russian Federation did not visit Belarus for three years, instead Lukashenko himself came to the Russian Federation.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, on April 12, military expert Oleh Zhdanov suggested that Russian President Vladimir Putin and self-proclaimed president of Belarus Lukashenko are meeting in order to attract the Belarusian army to the war against Ukraine.

On May 5, Lukashenko said that the so-called "special operation" of Russian troops in Ukraine lasted for too long.

On May 10, Oleh Zhdanov announced that Putin would put pressure on Lukashenko to use Belarusian troops to attack Ukraine.