Former ambassador: Belarusian forces unlikely to directly fight in Ukraine
The likelihood of Belarusian forces intervening directly in the Ukraine war is minute and rather constitutes information noise, Jaak Lensment, former Estonian ambassador to Belarus, told "Aktuaalne kaamera" news.
What the Russian president really wants from Belarus is military-technological cooperation, Lensment said.
"Belarusian forces directly intervening in battle is information noise, a possibility they want us to consider. There are many contraindications, and it would be very difficult to do. But use of Belarusian military equipment is more than likely," he suggested.
Belarus is allowing Russian forces to use its infrastructure: airspace, airfields, hospitals and training grounds for the newly mobilized, the ambassador remarked.
"The information war is another important component in which Belarus is partaking 100 percent," Lensment said.
Kyiv warns against potential attack from Belarus
Monday was the first time after three and a half years that Vladimir Putin visited Minsk. He was greeted at the airport by Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko. After praising mutual allied relations, the leaders talked about Europe's failure to understand and economic topics, as if there was nothing more burning to discuss.
"Russia and Belarus, as Vladimir Vladimirovich and I always say, are open to dialogue with other countries, including Europe. I hope they will soon listen to reason and we can move on to discuss mutual security and the future world order," Lukashenko said.
"If we broke the record in mutual trade last year, we have every reason to believe it will be broken again this year. It is likely we will hit the $40 billion mark in commerce," Putin said.
Kyiv has been warning against a new Russian offensive, which could start in Belarus.
The Russian Ministry of Defense on Monday published a video that allegedly depicts Russian forces training in Belarus. It was also said that Russian troops in Belarus will be carrying out battalion tactical exercises after which their battle worthiness will be evaluated. While Russia has used the territory of Belarus for the war, Belarusian forces have so far stayed out of the fighting.
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Editor: Marko Tooming, Marcus Turovski