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Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has postponed a planned visit to Minsk following the death of his Belarusian counterpart Vladimir Makei, according to Russian media reports quoting the foreign ministry. Belarus's state news agency Belta reported on Saturday that the long-standing foreign minister and associate of authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko had died suddenly. The cause of death wasn't given and Makei wasn't known to suffer from any chronic illness. Makei, 64, was due to meet Lavrov on Monday. Last week he attended a conference of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) -- a military alliance of several post soviet states...

⚡️#BREAKING Ukraine blows up border bridges with Belarus – Minsk— TPYXA ⚡ Middle East 🇸🇩 🇮🇷 🇷🇺 (@MEPaper1090) October 9, 2022⚡️Representatives of #Ukraine's territorial defense are coming to the border, aiming at the border guards of Belarus and shooting in the air, head of Belarusian border committe says— TPYXA ⚡ Middle East 🇸🇩 🇮🇷 🇷🇺 (@MEPaper1090) October 9, 2022

Turkish Airlines has extended its cancellation of flights to and from Belarus and Russia. Prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, the national carrier of Turkey operated passenger flights to and from Minsk (MSQ) in Belarus as well as Rostov (RVI), Sochi (AER), and Yekaterinburg (SVX) in Russia. The Istanbul-based air carrier announced that it will not resume flights to the named destinations until at least December 31, 2022. “Our flights from/to Minsk (Belarus) have been canceled until December 31, 2022 (inclusive), from/to Sochi (Russia), have been canceled until December 31, 2022 (inclusive), and from/to Rostov (Russia)...

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko said he was not planning a mobilisation after his close ally Russia announced it was calling up hundreds of thousands of reservists for the war in Ukraine. "The mobilisation is in Russia. ... There will be no mobilisation (here)," state media quoted Lukashenko as saying.

Twitter: Our sources report: #Lukashenko agreed to deploy 120K soldiers during November-February. (Russia) undertakes to supply 100K mobilized soldiers in addition. Lukashenko is preparing for a full-scale war. The West must issue an ultimatum he cannot refuse

Belarus has allegedly threatened to deploy 100,000 troops in Ukraine unless Kyiv withdraws its forces from the ‘new Russian territories’ after the referendums. According to the Ukrainian General Staff, the Belarus government in Minsk today, Thursday, September 29, announced that unless Kyiv withdraws all of its military forces from the four new regions of Russia, it will deploy 100,000 troops in Ukraine. They were referring of course to the four occupied regions of Ukraine where the recent ‘referendums’ were held in which people allegedly voted to join the Russian Federation. They also revealed that railway stations and airports in the...

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko accused neighbouring Ukraine on Tuesday of sending 15,000 troops to the border area to build defences and conduct reconnaissance, actions that he called "provocations". Lukashenko allowed his close ally Russia in February to use Belarus as a staging post for its invasion of Ukraine. However, he has said Belarus is not a party to the conflict and that its own forces are not involved. In comments carried by the state news agency BelTA, Lukashenko said the Ukrainian unit brought up to the border had blocked roads and was setting up checkpoints and firing positions. "In a...

Putin squirms in his seat as Belarus dictator Lukashenko rants about men 'running away' from mobilisation in Russia as huge traffic jams on Georgia border are captured in images from SPACE Belarusian president monologued and spouted rhetorical questions in his rant to Putin today in Sochi Putin sat silently, clearly uncomfortable, as he listened to his counterpart insisting that Russia would win war The call for mobilisation has proved wildly unpopular throughout Russia, sparking protests and a mass exodus Hundreds of thousands have already fled the country and traffic jams at several border checkpoints are visible from space This is...

President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko said that God punished the EU with a drought for its policies.President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko said that the drought and other natural disasters in the EU are God's punishment for the chosen political course. He said this at an open lesson in the Minsk Palace of the Republic on Knowledge Day, smartpress.by reports. “In fact, Europe is on the verge of the most powerful food crisis in modern history. God exists. He punished them with this severe drought, and now with terrible storms and floods,” assures Lukashenko. Alexander Lukashenko said that Europe is not...

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Friday that his military's SU-24 warplanes had been modified to carry nuclear weapons and that Minsk would react immediately if the West caused it any problems. -snip- "They (the West) must understand that if they opt for escalation no helicopters or planes will save them," Lukashenko was quoted as saying. "Everything was ready," he said, referring to the work to modify Belarusian warplanes to carry nuclear weapons. "It's not a good idea to escalate things with Belarus because that would be an escalation with the Union State (of Russia and Belarus) which has nuclear...

July 8, 2022 The country is making enormous investments in defense and will soon become one of Europe’s pre-eminent land powers.As the war in Ukraine – now in its fifth month – becomes a grinding battle of attrition, a new geostrategic realignment along NATO’s Eastern Flank is in full view: a fault line has emerged, running north-south, from Scandinavia and the Baltics down through Poland and into Romania and Bulgaria.In this reconfigured Europe, Poland is the hub of NATO’s effort to assist Ukraine, serving as the principal transit route for equipment and ammunition shipments to Ukraine, and providing a...

Poland has accused Belarus of ‘barbarism’ after a Polish WWII memorial was ‘razed to the ground’. The memorial in the western village of Mikuliszki contains the remains of the wartime headquarters of a Polish Home Army unit whose members died in combat in the area in 1944. Belarusian website glosznadniemna.pl ran several pictures of the location, showing only bare earth where the headquarters and crosses commemorating the fallen soldiers had stood. The Home Army (AK) was the main resistance movement in Poland during World War Two. Posting on social media, MP Robert Tyszkiewicz, Chairman of the Committee for Liaison with...

Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed Friday that western alliances in the wake of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine are "pushing" Russia and Belarus to unite. Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko has thus far been able to keep Minsk’s direct involvement out of the war in Ukraine, but comments by Putin posted to the Kremlin’s website suggest this may not be the case for long. "The unprecedented political and sanctions pressure from the so-called ‘collective West’ is pushing us to speed up the unification processes," the Kremlin chief said according to Russian media outlet RIA. "After all, together it is easier to minimize...

Lt.Gen. Ben Hodges, the former commanding general of the US Army in Europe, told Insider that Russia lacks the resources and capabilities to make significant advancements in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region — where the 20-week-long war has turned into a grinding campaign. ... Russia's arsenal of artillery and rockets is the "only advantage" that President Vladimir Putin's forces have right now and said this is reflected in attacks on Ukrainian defense positions and civilian areas, which cause lots of casualties. A key to Ukrainian success will be to neutralize these weapons, he said. Without them, Russian victories will be hard...

Throughout his 20-plus year rule, Vladimir Putin has consolidated power through graft, intimidation, manipulation of the Russian legal system, and forcefully silencing critics. Putin’s ability to sustain subservience and loyalty to his authority is no small feat, especially in a political culture of ruthless power politics. His reputation as a master tactician abroad has also been carefully cultivated, if not exaggerated.

Vladimir Putin will visit two small former Soviet states in central Asia this week, Russian state television reported on Sunday, in what would be the Russian leader’s first known trip abroad since ordering the invasion of Ukraine. -snip- Pavel Zarubin, the Kremlin correspondent of the Rossiya 1 state television station, said Putin would visit Tajikistan and Turkmenistan and then meet Indonesian President Joko Widodo for talks in Moscow. In Dushanbe, Putin will meet Tajik President Imomali Rakhmon, a close Russian ally and the longest-serving ruler of a former Soviet state. In Ashgabat, he will attend a summit of Caspian nations...

NATO needs a more “visible” presence in the Baltics to counter the threat Russia poses from Belarus, Lithuania’s President Gitanas Nausėda warned on Friday. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has prompted a discussion within the transatlantic military alliance about how to best defend its eastern members, with leaders gathering in Madrid next week set to sign off on new plans. Speaking ahead of the summit, Nausėda told POLITICO that “very huge fundamental changes” in neighboring Belarus make Lithuania more vulnerable to a quick Russian attack — and necessitate a shift in the region’s security arrangements. The Lithuanian leader said he would...

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday told his counterpart from Belarus that Moscow would supply Minsk with missile systems capable of carrying nuclear weapons, the Russian foreign ministry said. At a meeting with Putin in St Petersburg, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko expressed concern about the "aggressive", "confrontational" and "repulsive" policies of its neighbours Lithuania and Poland.

Kyiv on Saturday accused Russia of officially dragging Minsk into the war after missiles were fired at Ukraine from within Belarus’ borders. The Main Intelligence Agency of the Defense Ministry of Ukraine said "a mass rocket-bomb strike was launched" after 12 cruise missiles were fired from 6 planes. Another 24 missiles, also reportedly fired from within Belarus, were said to have hit Ukrainian military targets near Zhytomyr, an area less than 90 miles west of Kyiv, first reported Ukrainian news outlet Pravda.

Russian President Vladimir Putin told Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko Saturday that Russia will provide Belarus with nuclear-capable missile systems. According to Reuters, during a meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia, Lukashenko raised concerns about the "aggressive" and "confrontational" actions of neighboring countries Poland and Lithuania. He also discussed nuclear-armed flights near the Belarusian border being conducted by the U.S.-led NATO alliance, and reportedly asked Putin to help his country with a "symmetrical response." Last month, the Russian president sold nuclear-capable Iskander missiles and S-400 missile systems to Belarus.