From strategic partner to co-aggressor: Russia’s attempts to lure Belarus into the war in Ukraine

Although Belarus is one of Russia’s strategic partners after the outbreak of the war in Donbas relations between the two states were increasingly tense. Since 2014, Alexander Lukashenko has refused to recognize the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation and has tried to mediate the conflict by hosting peace talks in Minsk. Moreover, in 2018 and 2019, he refused Vladimir Putin’s proposals to deepen integration with Russia within the Union State. However, since the beginning of post-election protests and the imposition of harsh sanctions by the West, Alexander Lukashenko has tried to retain power and get closer to Russia. That is why he made a series of concessions to his Russian counterpart agreeing to adopt a new military doctrine of the Union State and to organize the military drills “Allied Resolve” on the territory of Belarus. This article examines how the Belarusian president reacted to Vladimir Putin’s attempts to lure him into the Russo-Ukrainian war throughout 2022. The paper shows that although initially, Alexander Lukashenko succumbed to Putin’s pressure to allow the Russian army to use Belarus to invade Ukraine, afterward he acted cautiously, avoiding at all costs the direct involvement of the Belarusian army in the war.