Authoritarian Belarusian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka will meet with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, on September 15 in the resort city of Sochi for talks on closer economic cooperation, as the two countries become further isolated internationally over the Kremlin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Lukashenka arrived in Sochi on September 14, according to Belarusian state media.
In announcing the meeting, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that "Belarus is our closest ally, the heads of state meet regularly." It will mark the seventh time Putin and Lukashanka have met this year alone.
The meeting was confirmed on September 14, a day after the European Parliament adopted a resolution calling Lukashenka an "accomplice" in Russia's crimes in Ukraine.
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While Belarus has not sent forces to join Russia's war in Ukraine, it has allowed Moscow to use its territory as a staging ground for the full-scale invasion it launched in February 2022.
The two allies signed documents allowing for the placement of Russian tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of Belarus -- the first relocation of such warheads outside Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union -- in May.
The announcement sparked immediate criticism from governments around the world, while NATO called it "dangerous and irresponsible."
On September 13, the European Parliament passed a resolution condemning Belarus's involvement in Russia's war on Ukraine and called Lukashenka regime "an accomplice in the crimes committed by Russia."
The resolution expressed concern about "the rampant political, economic, military, and cultural subordination of Belarus to Moscow," calling Belarus "a satellite state of Russia."
Adopted with 453 votes in favor, it also denounced the "illegal transfer of more than 2,150 children, including orphans" from Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine to Belarus and called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to consider issuing a warrant for Lukashenka's arrest.
The ICC in March issued arrest warrants for Putin and Russia's commissioner for children's rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, accusing them of being responsible for the illegal deportation of children from Ukraine, which constitutes a war crime.
The resolution also condemned the deployment of Russian tactical nuclear weapons on Belarusian territory, calling it a "blatant violation of Belarus's nuclear-free status."
Belarus has welcomed closer relations with Moscow since a wave of crushing sanctions were imposed on it by the West after a deadly government crackdown on massive protests following a disputed 2020 presidential election that handed Lukashenka a sixth term.
More sanctions have followed over Minsk's role in the Ukraine war.
Lukashenka showed his loyalty in late June when he took part in talks to end a mutiny by the private Wagner Group, claiming he helped halt the revolt by agreeing with the mercenary group's leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, and Putin to host Wagner troops in Belarus.