Lukashenko suddenly meets with Putin after calls not to drag Belarus into war
Photo: Belarusian and Russian leaders Alexander Lukashenko and Vladimir Putin (kremlin.ru)
The Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko unexpectedly met with Putin at a private residence in Valdai, where he almost never holds official negotiations, according to the Russian outlet Agentstvo.
According to the outlet, Minsk and the Kremlin announced the meeting only after Lukashenko had likely already returned to Belarus.
The unexpected nature of the visit, Agentstvo writes, is indicated by several details. According to FlightRadar data, Lukashenko’s plane departed Minsk at 9:46 am Moscow time and switched off its transponder over the Tver region.
Later in the day, the same aircraft landed in Minsk. Traffic on the M-11 highway near the residence was temporarily halted. OSINT analysis by the outlet showed that the airfield seen in the footage resembles Khotilovo-2 in the Tver region.
The Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko unexpectedly met with Putin at a private residence in Valdai, where he almost never holds official negotiations pic.twitter.com/DdXF8zM1mR
— RBC-Ukraine (@NewsUkraineRBC) June 26, 2026
The Kremlin confirmed the meeting only after it had ended. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov clarified that the leaders discussed the agenda of the Union State, trade and economic cooperation, and regional security. He added that there would be no official statements following the talks.
According to Agentstvo, the meeting took place the day after Lukashenko publicly demanded that Russian ambassador Boris Gryzlov refrain from dragging Minsk into the war against Ukraine.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Putin is allegedly pressuring Lukashenko to open a second front against Ukraine from Belarusian territory. At the same time, Russia is seeking a legal basis to involve Belarusian citizens in its armed forces through the framework of the Union State. Yesterday, Lukashenko claimed that he had met with representatives of Zelenskyy in Minsk.
