Jens Asbjørn Bøgen
He also seeks to reassure the neighbouring NATO countries.
The long-time leader of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, has rejected the idea of sending his soldiers into Ukraine.
Speaking in Grodno, he made it clear that his military will stay home.
According to the Belarusian opposition news outlet Nexta Live, the leader was blunt. “Should we go fight in Ukraine according to someone else’s will? Do we want to be cannon fodder there? No, we do not want that,” Lukashenko said.
Lukashenko has ruled since 1994 and remains a key ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Still, he tried to reassure NATO members Poland and Lithuania.
“I want the Poles, Lithuanians, and Ukrainians to hear me. We do not want to fight with them,” Lukashenko said, according to TVP World.
Mixed messages
The leader insisted his focus was entirely on peaceful projects. “I want builders to build, not to hold machine guns or assault rifles in their hands,” Lukashenko said. “So do not believe anyone who says we want some kind of war.”
But his western neighbours remain deeply suspicious. Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia have dealt with major migrant pressure at their borders with Belarus since 2021. They accuse Minsk of using vulnerable people to destabilise the European Union.
Lukashenko also praised his military partnership with Moscow. He promised that Belarus would defend Russia if necessary, leaving many observers confused about where he draws the line.
Under the shadow
In contrast to his peaceful claims, the leader ordered a military mobilization to prepare his forces for war and possible ground operations just last month.
At the time, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned in May that Moscow was trying to draw Belarus “deeper into the war.”
That threat is very real. Back in February 2022, Belarus allowed Russian troops to use its territory as a launching pad for the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
While never formalized, multiple think tanks and analysts assess that Belarus has been “de facto” annexed by Russia over the years, posing a strategic risk to NATO, Ukraine, and the United States.
As the Institute for the Study of War put it in an analysis in January 2025: “The Kremlin seeks to de facto annex Belarus by formalizing the Union State as a Russian-dominated federated government that grants Moscow dominant power over most, if not all, aspects of Belarusian governance.”
