Putin’s Belarus visit fuels fear of widen war in Ukraine
Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Belarus for talks that fuelled fears he was pressuring his closest ally to enter the war in Ukraine.
Moscow said it had shot down American missiles over Russian territory as President Vladimir Putin visited Belarus for talks that fuelled fears he was pressuring his closest ally to enter the war in Ukraine.
The Russian defence ministry said it had destroyed four US-made Harm anti-radar missiles over the Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine. The Pentagon has not confirmed the report.
The US said in August that it had provided Harm missiles, with a range of 50km, to Ukraine, adapted so they can be fired from its Soviet-era warplanes.
Western-supplied weapons have helped Ukraine to expel Mr Putin’s army from large swaths of the country but Washington is concerned that their use to strike targets inside Russia could trigger an escalation in the war. It said in June that Kyiv had promised it would not use advanced American rocket systems to attack Russian territory.
The Russian foreign ministry said last week that the US had “effectively become a party” to the war by supplying Ukraine with weapons and training.
Mr Putin arrived in Minsk on Monday for talks with President Alexander Lukashenko. They have met a dozen times since February last year but this was the first time that talks have taken place in the Belarusian capital. Mr Putin was accompanied by Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
The Russian defence ministry said 9000 Russian troops deployed to Belarus in October were holding military drills with Belarusian forces.
“From the morning until the evening twilight there is not a single second of silence at the training grounds of Belarus,” it said, releasing video of soldiers conducting tank manoeuvres and practising artillery and sniper fire.
Ukrainian defence officials have warned that the Kremlin could be planning to launch a new attack from Belarus as early as next month. It used the former Soviet state as a launch pad for its failed attempt to seize Kyiv in February and for missile strikes on Ukrainian cities, but Mr Lukashenko has said several times that his country’s army will not take part in the conflict.
Belarus and Russia have been part of a largely symbolic two-nation union state since the early 1990s but the Kremlin has been pushing hard for deeper integration, including a common currency.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed concerns that Mr Putin would pressure Mr Lukashenko to send troops to Ukraine. “These are totally stupid, groundless fabrications,” he said. Analysts pointed out that officials repeatedly denied that Russia was planning to invade Ukraine, only for Mr Putin to instigate the largest armed conflict in Europe since World War II.
The Russian delegation arrived in Belarus just hours after new drone attacks on energy facilities in Kyiv, part of Russian efforts to plunge Ukraine into cold and darkness. Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said the attacks had damaged critical infrastructure.
In Moldova, which borders Ukraine, the head of the state intelligence service warned that the Kremlin could be plotting to invade the pro-Western country within weeks. Alexandru Musteata told national television that Russia would try to seize Transnistria, Moldova’s pro-Russian breakaway region, which shares a border with western Ukraine.
The Times
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