Lukashenko Continues to Resist the Kremlin's Attempts to Drag Belarus Into the War — ISW
According to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), Alexander Lukashenko is resisting pressure from Moscow to draw Belarus more deeply into the war against Ukraine. It is noted that Minsk is trying to maintain limited involvement in the conflict, despite the Kremlin’s growing influence.
Analysts drew attention to a June 23 article in The Wall Street Journal.
Citing unnamed Russian and European officials, the publication reported that the Kremlin is pressuring Belarus’s self-proclaimed president, Alexander Lukashenko, to involve Belarus more actively in the war against Ukraine.
Specifically, this involves allowing Russian troops to launch drones from Belarusian territory and expanding the front line in the west to force Ukraine to redeploy some of its forces to the Belarusian border.
According to the WSJ, a former Russian intelligence officer familiar with the situation claims that the Kremlin is threatening Minsk with the withdrawal of financial support should it refuse to comply with these demands.
Analysts believe that Lukashenko is trying to strike a balance between maintaining Russia’s support for Belarus and what remains of the country’s eroded sovereignty.
“Since 2022, Lukashenko has refused to allow Russia to deploy Belarusian armed forces to support Russian operations in Ukraine or to carry out a large-scale conscription of Belarusians into the Russian army,” the report states.
In addition, Lukashenko and other high-ranking Belarusian officials, as noted by the ISW, avoid the Kremlin’s rhetoric about an alleged threat to Belarus from Ukraine and maintain a relatively neutral stance on the war.
Earlier, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that Russia is attempting to draw Belarus deeper into the war against Ukraine and is considering new scenarios for aggression from its territory.
Belarus’s self-proclaimed president, Alexander Lukashenko, held a meeting on military equipment and announced the preparation of a new state armament program for 2026–2030.
