Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said this week he was willing to meet Volodymyr Zelensky anywhere, in Ukraine or in Belarus, to talk through what he called "the problems of Belarusian-Ukrainian relations." Kyiv rejected the offer within hours.
"Since 2022, it has been obvious to everyone that this man's words mean nothing, and we should pay attention to his actions," Zelensky's advisor Dmytro Lytvyn told reporters.
However, the timing was not incidental. Ukraine's military intelligence had been tracking what Kyiv described as Russian preparations for a new offensive through Belarusian territory targeting the capital and the Chernihiv region. Zelensky said on May 21 that his government had analyzed data from its intelligence agencies on "Russia's planning of offensive operations in the Chernihiv-Kyiv direction" and was preparing responses. He also instructed the Foreign Ministry to draft additional diplomatic measures against Belarus should Russia use its territory to expand the war.
This is not the first time Belarus has denied involvement while events moved in a different direction. In early 2022, Lukashenko also said his country would stay out of the conflict. Moscow then used Belarusian territory to cross into northern Ukraine and push toward Kyiv. The offensive failed. Russian forces withdrew after several weeks, though missile and drone strikes from Belarusian territory continued.
