Ukraine war: Putin meets Lukashenko – Russia's president lands near the Chinese border

Created: 04/12/2022, 10:15 am

By: Christoph Klaucke

Vladimir Putin meets Alexander Lukashenko on Tuesday for further consultations in the Ukraine war: what is expected of it.

• Russia* and Ukraine* have been at war for almost seven weeks.

  Russian President Vladimir Putin * wants to ask questions from media representatives on Tuesday.

• At the Vostochny spaceport, Putin also meets Belarus ruler Alexander Lukashenko.

  All developments in the news ticker.

+++ 10.15 a.m .:

Vladimir Putin has arrived in the far east of Russia for a meeting with the Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko.

Russian state news agency Ria Novosti reported that Putin landed in the city of Blagoveshchensk near the Chinese border on Tuesday.

Lukashenko, with whom Putin wants to visit the planned Vostochny spaceport on the occasion of Space Day, is already there.

In addition to a conversation with Lukashenko, meetings with workers at the station and awards to cosmonauts are also planned, it said.

Putin then plans to answer media representatives' questions for the first time since Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine began almost seven weeks ago.

Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24.

Since then, Russian troops have also attacked Ukraine from Belarusian territory.

First report from Tuesday, April 12, 2022, 9:00 a.m.:

Moscow/Vostochny – Russia is at war with Ukraine.

After almost seven weeks, a solution to the Ukraine conflict is still not in sight.

Putin now wants to answer questions from journalists on Tuesday.

Putin will visit the Vostochny cosmodrome in the far east of the country on Space Day, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in Moscow on Monday, according to the Interfax news agency.

The Kremlin chief also wants to meet his Belarusian counterpart and ally Alexander Lukashenko there.

The public media round is eagerly awaited, but it remains to be seen whether Putin will provide answers to urgent questions such as secured evacuation corridors for the civilian population or possible prospects for peace.

Ukraine war: Putin meets Lukashenko

Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24.

Since then, Russian troops have been attacking from Belarusian territory, among other places.

At the same time, the first talks between a Russian and a Ukrainian delegation took place in the border area of ​​the authoritarian former Soviet republic in March.

After another round of negotiations in Istanbul, Turkey, the Belarusian ruler Lukashenko recently called for his country to take part in the talks again.

Russian President Vladimir Putin.

(Archive photo) © Alexander Nemenov/dpa

After the latest negotiations in Turkey, Russia continues to see Belarus as a possible mediator in the Ukraine war.

"We are in favor of our Belarusian friends continuing to play a positive role in the Russian-Ukrainian negotiations, and Belarus is an excellent platform for the continuation of such negotiations," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in Moscow on Friday.

In Belarus, ruler Alexander Lukashenko had previously requested participation in the talks.

Without his country, no solution is possible, he said.

Although Lavrov did not rule out other venues for negotiations, he also advocated Belarus as a security guarantor for Ukraine.

However, Ukraine no longer sees Belarus as a neutral mediator, as there have also been attacks from there.

(ck with AFP/dpa)