During a meeting between Putin and Lukashenko, the Belarusian dictator called both "co-congressors"

This was reported by the Belarusian and Russian propaganda media.

Not only Putin came to the meeting in Belarus. Members of the government were also with him. The Russian defence minister, Shoigu, also came.

The main topics discussed by the two dictators:

• the countries will develop nuclear projects and science, and train personnel,
• Russia and Belarus will go on a record turnover of $40 billion,
• Lukashenko hopes that the West will "listen to the voice of reason" and the security dialogue will resume,
• Russia and Belarus have managed to cope with the possible negative consequences of the sanctions pressure.

In addition, Lukashenko boasted that Belarus had put the S-400 anti-aircraft missile system and the Iskander missile system, handed over by Russia, on combat duty.

Andrei Yusov of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Defense Ministry commented on the meeting between Lukashenko and Putin. He expressed hope that Lukashenko still had "the instinct of self-preservation". Otherwise, according to Yusov, the Ukrainian Defense Forces are ready for various scenarios and will not wait for "news" from Belarus.

If we are talking about specific preparations for an operation, this is already another level - say, the General Staff at least. If Putin meets and, moreover, goes to the dictator, it means that not everything is as good as he would like, in fact. This is something we need to know and understand. But he will probably persuade. And certainly this is one of the dreams of Putin - to drag Lukashenko and Belarus into a full-scale ground operation. Whatever dictator Lukashenko is, as of now the instinct of self-preservation has not yet completely left him. And until today.

During the negotiations Lukashenko called himself and Putin "co-congressors".

The two of us are co-aggressors, the most harmful, toxic people on this planet. We have only one dispute - who is bigger. Vladimir Vladimirovich says that I am. And I am beginning to think that he is. So we decided that together, equally.