Belarus set to join Russian invasion of Ukraine

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Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who is known as Europe’s last dictator has decided to send Belarus soldiers to join Russian invasion of Ukraine. According to US intelligence agencies, Belarus is getting ready to deploy troops to help Russia with its invasion of Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko are allies, and the troops could leave Belarus for Ukraine as early as Monday, the official told The Washington Post. “It’s very clear Minsk is now an extension of the Kremlin”, the official added.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he spoke to Lukashenko for the first time in two years on Sunday night, and was assured that “troops from Belarus will not go to Ukraine”. Earlier in the day, Lukashenko declared that Russia doesn’t need soldiers or weapons from Belarus, because “they have enough ammunition, and cartridges, and machine guns, and enough people to solve the problems that Russia wants to solve”.

Lukashenko is known as “Europe’s last dictator,” and has been in power since 1994. Most of the international community agrees that he rigs elections to ensure he will win, and in 2020, protesters took to the streets, accusing Lukashenko of stealing the presidential election; thousands were arrested and beaten.

On Sunday, a referendum was held in Belarus, and Russian state media reports that 65.2 percent of voters approved changing the constitution so the country can have nuclear weapons on its soil. This would give Russia the opportunity to deploy nuclear weapons to Belarus, and is “a sign of Lukashenko’s utter dependence on Moscow to stay in power,” Politico‘s Sergei Kuznetsov writes.

Kuznetsov said Lukashenko “had traditionally tried to maneuver between Russia and the West to maintain some freedom of action, but the brutal crackdown following the 2020 election left him vulnerable and isolated”.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Sunday said Lukashenko’s regime is “a collaborator” with the Kremlin, and because it is “complicit in this vicious attack against Ukraine”, Lukashenko and Belarus will be hit with “a new package of sanctions”.

Meanwhile, according to information, Chechen jihadists as well as other pro-Moscow forces are advancing towards Ukraine in helping Vladimir Putin in toppling-down President Volodymyr Zelensky and succeed in Moscow’s invasion of Kyiv. Chechen jihadists are already on the soil of Ukraine, while another source said, Iranian regime too is sending its own forces and has asked Hezbollah, Hamas and Houthis is joining Russia’s war in Ukraine. Iran, Houthis, Hezbollah and Hamas consider President Volodymyr Zelensky as a “Zionist stooge” and are willing to oust him from power. Palestinian mega-terror outfit Hamas reportedly has been asked by Tehran to send commandoes to Ukraine both from Gaza as well as from Jordan in fighting “Jews in Ukraine”.

Meanwhile, US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield protested to her Israeli counterpart over Israel’s refusal to join 87 countries in backing a US-led resolution to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at the UN Security Council.

The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office and Foreign Ministry had been claiming for weeks that the Biden administration understood Israel’s need to calibrate its reaction to the Russian invasion in order to maintain its security coordination with Russia in Syria.

An Israeli foreign ministry official said the decision not to accept the US request to co-sponsor the resolution was due to the fact that Israel is not a member of the UN Security Council and it was clear Russia would veto.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid told Israel’s Security Cabinet on Sunday that the US “contained” the Israeli refusal to join the resolution.

“We speak to the Biden administration in a wide range of channels on various aspects of the Ukrainian issue and the bottom line is that our partners are well aware of our considerations”, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lior Haiat told Axios.

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