Almost like Putin, but different: Lukashenko "mobilizes" - State Secretary rows back

Created: 09/21/2022, 16:09

By: Andreas Schmid

Close confidants: Alexander Lukashenko and Vladimir Putin, here in 2021 on a boat on the Black Sea.

© Sergei Ilyin/Pool Sputnik Kremlin/AP/dpa

Alexander Lukashenko is preparing Belarus for the "law of war".

Europe's last dictator speaks of a "second Ukraine" and pledges support for Putin's Russia.

Minsk – He is considered a Putin ally and “the last dictator in Europe”: Alexander Lukashenko, President of the former Soviet Republic of Belarus, also known as Belarus.

His policies are similar to those of the Kremlin, and Lukashenko repeatedly orients himself towards Vladimir Putin.

So now after Russia's announced mobilization, which affects around 300,000 soldiers.

Lukashenko orders mobilization: "They want a second Ukraine in Belarus"

On Tuesday, Lukashenko also ordered all security agencies to be mobilized and the laws to be further tightened.

"If we have to put a military unit on alert under the laws of war, then we have to do it," Lukashenko told Minsk's state-run Belta news agency.

At the same time, the 68-year-old threatened critical forces in the country and called for "discipline of society".

He claimed the opposition was planning a coup.

Lukashenko said there was a lack of discipline in Belarus, which the authorities now had to enforce.

He spoke of "refugees and relatives" who are responsible for the lack of discipline.

Lukashenko stated “openly and blatantly”: “In Ukraine, some kind of regiments or battalions are being formed to overthrow the government.

The aim is to tear Belarus apart and force it into NATO.

They want a second Ukraine in Belarus.

This is unacceptable.” How are these announcements to be understood?

Belarus mobilization in the Ukraine war: "It's not about us, God forbid"

Minsk tried to classify the mobilization on Wednesday.

Several articles on the subject appeared on the Belta news agency.

State Secretary of the Belarusian Security Council Alexander Wolfovich said that Lukashenko's announcement did not have a major impact.

Belarus also poses “no threat to anyone”.

"Mobilization is not about us," Belta quotes Lukashenko's confidante Wolfowitsch.

"The people in Belarus and the country are mobilized anyway." Russia and Belarus practically have "a common army," Lukashenko said in July.

Now Belarus is prepared for a war effort.

"God forbid we stand ready to fight with the forces and means destined for this purpose, with the armed forces that are defending their country and the constitutional order on their territory today."

Lukashenko's close Putin connection: "Russia cannot lose"

Lukashenko has so far been the most important Putin supporter in Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine.

Belarus had made its bases available for attacks on Ukraine and repeatedly stressed that it stood with "our ally Russia".

Under no circumstances will his country attack Russia.

On Tuesday, according to Belta, he said that "there should not and will not be a blow in the back of Russian troops by Belarus."

Lukashenko clearly takes sides in the Ukraine war.

"Russia cannot lose," the Russian news agency Tass quoted him as saying in early September.

“Russia cannot suffer defeat there.

And I and many Belarusians support Russia in this regard,” said Lukashenko, who regularly demonstratively pokes fun at the West.

Incidentally, the Belarusian ruler speaks of a "special operation" in accordance with the Russian terminology.