Russia denies pressuring Belarus to widen Ukraine conflict

MOSCOW: The Kremlin on Thursday denied a Wall Street Journal report that it is pressuring Belarus to support an expansion of Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The WSJ reported on Wednesday that Russia wanted to use Belarus as a springboard to step up attacks on Ukraine and that Moscow was threatening to cut financial support for its neighbour if this support was not forthcoming.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the report “does not correspond to reality” and that Belarus was “our closest ally”.

Russian forces used Belarusian territory as a launchpad to attack Ukraine in 2022 in a war that is now well into its fifth year. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said in recent months he believes that Moscow plans to draw Minsk more deeply into the conflict.

Lukashenko has supported Putin

Last Friday Zelenskiy said that signal relay stations in Belarus were being used to guide Russian drone attacks on Ukraine. He gave Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko a week to remove them, adding: “If he doesn’t do it, we’ll do it.”

On Wednesday, Zelenskiy said the relay stations had “stopped working”.

“Whether they took them down or not, honestly, I don’t know for now. But we are working on this,” he said.

Reuters could not independently verify his assessment. Russia’s Peskov said he had no information on the issue.

While Lukashenko has not sent Belarusian troops to fight alongside Russia, he has supported Russian President Vladimir Putin in important ways, including by agreeing to the stationing of Russian tactical nuclear missiles on Belarusian territory.

Belarus has also conducted frequent joint military exercises with Russia and allowed Moscow’s forces to use its bases and training grounds.

Refineries process Russian oil

While Moscow is the dominant partner in the relationship, it is also reliant on Belarus, which has two large refineries, to process Russian oil and sell gasoline, diesel and jet fuel back to Russia.

That supply loop has become increasingly important this year as Ukraine has intensified attacks on oil refineries in Russia, creating fuel shortages in many parts of the country.

In the first five months of this year, rail shipments of gasoline from Belarusian refineries to the Russian market surged nearly 13-fold compared to the same period last year, exceeding 270,000 tonnes, while shipments of Belarusian diesel tripled to 179,000 tonnes, according to Reuters sources.

In the first half of June, gasoline shipments from Belarus by rail nearly tripled compared to the first half of May, according to data from industry sources and Reuters calculations.