Is Zelensky about to attack Belarus?

The Spectator ^ | Sunday, June 21, 2026 | Mark Galeotti

[MinorityRepublican]

There has long been a worry that Russian escalation or miscalculation might see the Ukraine war widen into a broader European one. But what if it’s Kyiv, not Moscow, that starts this process?

The flashpoint is Belarus. Minsk’s dictatorial leader, Alexander Lukashenko, is beholden to Vladimir Putin, but not a helpless vassal. On the one hand, he has refused to join Putin’s war directly, saying that he won’t allow Belarusians to become ‘mincemeat.’ On the other, he has been willing to let Russian troops use facilities in his country, and fly drones and missiles through his airspace.

There is growing concern, not only in Minsk and Moscow but also in many European capitals, that Zelensky, fired up by his recent successes, may overreach

Flush with recent success after striking deep into Russia, Volodymyr Zelensky has begun escalating his rhetoric against Belarus.

Back in February, he urged Nato to treat Oreshnik missiles based in Belarus as legitimate targets, regardless of whether they had been or were going to be used. Last month, following (implausible) claims that Minsk was considering joining a new Russian offensive against Chernihiv in northern Ukraine, he warned Lukashenko to ‘understand there will be consequences if there is aggression against Ukraine.’ The head of Kyiv’s drone forces, warned that he had a list of 500 Belarusian targets he would strike.

Just to make things personal, one of Zelensky’s advisors even threatened Lukashenko directly: ‘As a cautious person who wants to live to retirement… it would be preferable for him to simply remain silent today.’

Lukashenko was conciliatory, offering a face-to-face meeting with Zelensky ‘anywhere – in Ukraine, in Belarus’ to address his concerns. On Tuesday, he went further, saying that Belarus posed no military threat to Ukraine and even apologising for his previous harsh remarks.

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TOPICS: Ukraine
KEYWORDS: bloggers; fakenews; no; notnews

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Is Zelensky NATO about to attack Belarus?

Fixed it.

[Midwesterner53]

Lukashenko knows his population hates him and needs little pretext to rise up and see him gone for good.

[Dr. Franklin]

The Ukies can destroy a lot of Belarus’ petrochemical industry, and cause a rebellion against Lukashenko. That would cause another dilemma for Putin.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

The Ukies NATO can destroy a lot of Belarus’ petrochemical industry, and cause a rebellion against Lukashenko. That would cause another dilemma for Putin.

"Ukraine" can do nothing without other people's money, weapons and authorization.

[deks]

Didn’t the Russian army attack Ukraine through Belarus in 2022?

[House Atreides]

“ But what if it’s Kyiv, not Moscow, that starts this process?”
*************************************************

Sure. Zelensky can call it Operation Barbarossa. What could possibly go wrong.

[ETCM]

Lukashenko knows his population hates him and needs little pretext to rise up and see him gone for good.

Exactly. Lukashenko has a very good reason for his refusal to actively support Putin's war, his own survival. He has maybe 30% support among the Belarusian people, and most of them are elderly or government employees. Young people, aka military age, despise him.

[Paul R.]

Money, yes. But the Ukies are getting quite good with their own weapons. Only fools would underestimate them in that regard, even if, or actually, perhaps I should say, largely because, Western funding is behind those weapons.

If the Western Euros had not so badly hamstrung their own economies, Putin would be in a whole lot of trouble at this point.

One should not be like Kirk when he 1st went up against the Romulans. (He admitted so, himself.)

[E. Pluribus Unum]

But the Ukies are getting quite good with their own weapons.

Do those weapons require other people's money to produce, or are they magic?

[Paul R.]

True. Z-man can play on that - he doesn’t actually need to attack Belarus.

[VanShuyten]

The initial complaint by Big Z had to do with drone targeting facilities in Belarus. There was some question about whether they were Belarus owned, operated, and leased to the Russians or wholly Russian built and operated.

That matters little to the Ukrainians in the apartment buildings the drones hit.

[Cronos]

The thing is that Likashenko holds the absolute monopoly on inflicting violence.

And there are tens of thousands of Russian federation troops in Belarus so even if the Belarussian military turned on lukashenko they would be swatted aside.

[Cronos]

Yes, look up the “Union state” which is a merger of Belarus into the Russian federation. Lukashenko signed that devil’s pact to stay in power, selling his country to save his skin

[Paul R.]

Are you having trouble comprehending plain English tonight? I clearly described the money end. I am not going to waste my time restating the obvious yet again.

[Zhang Fei]

[”Ukraine” can do nothing without other people’s money, weapons and authorization.]

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The Continental Army needed 3% of French and 1.5% of Spanish GDP per year for 7 years, and French and Spanish naval and land attacks on the Crown to prevail. (3% of GDP is the US military budget today). 90% of its arms were provided by France. Ukraine is getting 0.5% of European GDP today, but no direct military support. Far less than 90% of Ukraine’s weaponry is coming from outside Ukraine.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

So you intend to continue the charade that it’s not a proxy war.

[McGruff]

You sure he isn’t related to Hitler?

[Red6]

LOL,

These stories should be aired on comedy central, not the news.

[Red6]

When I learned about our social media heavily influencing the elections (they work with our IC), and how they even were the decision maker in the elections, when I found out Google (an NSA creation) was in on the game (search results etc), I realized Mr. Z is all together our puppet.

Maybe not entirely under our control at this point, but nonetheless installed by us initially.

Yes, this is a total proxy conflict where you had a revolt that overthrew a government (heavily sponsored by us and we even admitted this - $5 billion), a Ukrainian president we helped install. Then we wanted to expand NATO into Ukraine and the Russians started biting.

We responded by arming, training, providing logistics, money and Intel, as well as opening the doors for the easy flow of mercenaries. The Euros went as far as having Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, and Poland pump electricity into Ukraines power grid which can’t even come close to covering demand anymore.

Someone has to play really stupid not to see this is a proxy war.