In a historic meeting, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko held talks in Saint Petersburg at the Konstantinovsky Palace, marking their first face-to-face meeting since Lukashenko played a pivotal role in brokering a deal that led to the end of the mutiny by Wagner fighters in Moscow last month.
The video posted by Lukashenko’s press service showed the two leaders arriving together at the palace, ahead of their scheduled talks, which Putin revealed would continue for two days, saying, “I changed some of my plans.” He was quoted by the TASS news agency as stating, “We will spend one and a half, two days (for talks).”
One of the key topics on their agenda was the ongoing Ukrainian counteroffensive to push back Russian forces from Ukraine. Putin informed Lukashenko that the counteroffensive had “failed,” to which Lukashenko responded by denying its failure. Putin and Lukashenko emphasized that they would discuss the issue of security in Eastern Europe during their meetings.
Addressing the matter of the Wagner mercenaries, Lukashenko stated that the notorious fighters were currently located in central Belarus and were under the control of Minsk. He revealed that the mercenaries had requested permission to travel westward, including to cities like Warsaw and Rzeszow, but Lukashenko affirmed that they were being kept in accordance with their previous agreement. However, he also mentioned that the Wagner fighters were in a “bad mood.”
The meeting of the two leaders extended beyond formal discussions, as they greeted a crowd of people in Kronstadt town on Kotlin Island in Russia, and even engaged in a rare walkabout together. A video posted by Russia’s Kommersant newspaper showed Putin and Lukashenko posing for photographs with the public, surrounded by bodyguards.
In the midst of the ongoing pandemic, Putin addressed the topic of quarantine rules that he had been following, emphasizing that the well-being of people was of greater importance.
(with inputs from various news agencies.)
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