Putin trying to drag Belarus into war - Zelensky

The head of the Ukrainian state announced this following a meeting with British Foreign Secretary David Lammy, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

“With Putin’s ambitions and what we see today as he is doing everything not to stop this war, the fact is that he will go further. He will eye other countries. I’m positive. I warn of this absolutely overtly, frankly. You will see, he will provoke other countries. Perhaps the next one will be Poland, or the Baltic States. And this isn’t just another part of rhetoric. You will see, in spring, summer or autumn, he will deploy forces on the territory of Belarus. And many Europeans, perhaps the United States, will say this is intimidation of Poland, Lithuania, our other Baltic partners. But you will see that he will do everything to engage them, think about how to provoke them. I don’t know whether there’ll be an invasion, but in any case, he will drag Belarus into war in this way,” Zelensky said.

He added that in his opinion, after Ukraine was attacked with missiles from the territory of Belarus, this country was already at war.

“But their people – no, and their army – not yet, but Putin really wants that. And therefore I believe everything must be done to stop him,” the president said.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, Belarus is testing combat readiness of certain units, but this poses no threat to Ukraine, as per the spokesman for the State Border Guard Service, Andriy Demchenko.