Belarus will join forces with Russia and take part in its invasion of Ukraine 'within hours', according to reports in Kyiv.
It comes after Ukrainian officials rejected Belarus as a venue for potential peace talks, because its neighbour had allowed its territory to be used by Russian troops as a staging ground for the invasion.
Yesterday saw Belarus formally renounce its non-nuclear and neutral status - allowing Russia to place nuclear weapons on its territory, reports the Mirror.
Now, The Kyiv Independent reports that "Vladimir Putin is about to pull his Belarusian ally, dictator Aleksandr Lukashenko into his war of occupation".
"Multiple sources in Belarus say the decision has been made — and as soon as on Feb. 28 at 5 a.m. local time, the first Ilyushin Il-76 transport aircraft is very likely to take off carrying Belarusian paratroopers to be deployed against Ukraine," adds the English speaking website.
On twitter, a Belarusian lieutenant colonel has reportedly urged troops to disobey any orders to invade Ukraine.
The video and partial translation was shared by Franak Viačorka, senior advisor to Belarusian human rights activist Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya.
It comes after President Lukashenko, who has edged even closer to Russia amid crippling Western sanctions over his crackdown on domestic protests, said he is confident that Belarusians will support a set of constitutional amendments that would allow him to stay in power until 2035.
The revised main law also sheds Belarus’s neutral status, opening the way for stronger military co-operation with Russia, which deployed forces to Belarusian territory under the pretext of military drills and then sent them rolling into Ukraine as part of the invasion that began on Thursday.
Some of those forces quickly closed in on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, located just 75 kilometres (less than 50 miles) south of the border.
In a video message on Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky rebuked Belarusians for allowing their country to be used as a staging ground for the Russian invasion, adding that Ukrainian cities are facing an attack on a scale unseen since the Second World War when Belarus and Ukraine faced a Nazi invasion as parts of the Soviet Union.
“But you aren’t on the same side with us in the war that is going on now,” Mr Zelensky said in Russian, which is widely spoken in Belarus.
“The Russian military is launching missiles at Ukraine from your territory. From your territory they are killing our children, they are destroying our homes and trying to blow up everything that has been built for decades.”
In an emotional speech, the Ukrainian leader questioned how Belarusians will be able “to look into the eyes of your children, into the eyes of each other”.
“We are your neighbours. Be Belarus, not Russia,” he said.
The Belarusian leader quickly hit back, denigrating the Ukrainian president as an American puppet and claiming that the Russian attack resulted from Mr Zelensky’s failure to accept Russian President Vladimir Putin’s demand for Ukraine to renounce its bid to join Nato.
The West responded to Belarus hosting Russian troops for the invasion by hitting it with new tough sanctions along with Russia.
Mr Lukashenko ominously warned on Sunday that more sanctions from the West are “pushing the world to the brink of World War Three”.
The Belarusian leader, who said previously that his country could host Russian nuclear weapons, said he warned French President Emmanuel Macron in a call on Saturday that he was ready to make the move if the US and its allies deploy nuclear weapons to Nato members Poland and Lithuania, which border Belarus.
“We have developed plans to protect Belarus and agreed with Putin to deploy such weapons here that will make Poles and Lithuanians lose any desire to go to war,” he said.
The constitutional amendments bring back limits on presidential terms that had been abolished during Mr Lukashenko’s tenure, allowing a president only two five-year terms in office.
However, the restriction will only take effect once a “newly elected president” assumes office, which gives Mr Lukashenko an opportunity to run for two more terms after his current one expires in 2025.
“This pseudo referendum is being held under the Russian gun barrels and under effective control of the Russian military which has come to stay in Belarus for a long time,” Belarus’s first post-Soviet leader, Stanislav Shushkevich, told the Associated Press.
“The absurdity that is going on now directly contradicts the existing main law that envisages Belarus’s neutral status.”
Mr Shushkevich warned that “Lukashenko is depriving Belarus of its future and turning the country into a staging ground for Putin’s mad games”, adding that “the Belarusian leader has no choice, he also is a pariah”.
In 2020, Mr Lukashenko relied on Moscow’s support to survive the largest and the most sustained wave of mass protests in the country’s history.
Demonstrations, the biggest of which drew up to 200,000 people, were triggered by him winning a sixth term in office in a presidential election in August 2020 that the opposition and the West denounced as rigged.
Protesters demanding a new election and Mr Lukashenko’s ousting faced a brutal crackdown from the authorities, with more than 35,000 arrested and thousands brutally beaten.
Key opposition figures, including Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, Mr Lukashenko’s main contender in the election, left the country amid the clampdown, along with thousands of ordinary Belarusians.
The opposition denounced the vote as a “farce” and said it would not recognise its results.
“The Belarusians are again being offered a choice between Lukashenko and Lukashenko,” Ms Tsikhanouskaya told the AP.
“Belarusians want change, but harsh large-scale repressions forced many to remain silent.”
She said Belarusians widely oppose the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“Belarusians’ hearts hurt as it’s not just the fate of Ukraine but also our fate that is decided now,” Ms Tsikhanouskaya said.
“We realise that Belarus’s independence is closely connected with Ukraine’s independence.”
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