One year has passed since the Russo-Ukraine war started. It was a madness that left the world in panic, Europe in dark, and Ukraine in despair. It was a war that stalled the growth of the whole world for a year, however, a new chapter is unfolding in the Russia-Ukraine war.
Grandpa Biden, who is directly running the war through Ukraine is arriving in Eastern Europe for some bilateral visits. But, the talks for Ukraine are definitely going to be part of it. However, Putin’s Belarussian bonhomie has challenged Biden to come to Belarus.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has invited US President Joe Biden to visit Minsk for talks aimed at ending the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. Lukashenko stated that Russian President Vladimir Putin would be willing to join the talks. Is this a solution to the Ukrainian stalemate?
According to Belarusian state-owned news outlet BelTA, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko has extended an invitation to US President Joe Biden to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Minsk to discuss ending the ongoing war in Ukraine.
Biden’s scheduled trip to Poland has been called into question by Lukashenko, who offered to welcome the US President in Minsk if he wanted to talk about peace in Ukraine.
In addition, he stated that he was willing to arrange a conference between the three presidents to settle the problem, referring to himself as a “peace-loving president” in the process. If necessary, Lukashenko even volunteered to send a plane to Poland.
That is currently a really very interesting development because Biden is scheduled to travel to Poland and meet with the leaders of nine Eastern European countries, including Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, and Slovakia. These countries continue to obstruct US efforts in Ukraine by occasionally voicing their concerns in Brussels.
Belarus is emphasizing that if the US wants to discuss a plan for peace in Ukraine, instead of Poland, he must travel to Minsk with Lukashenko serving as the mediator.
A new Minsk?
This is no hidden fact that Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has a close relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin and that Belarus serves as a key ally of Russia in the region.
Lukashenko has publicly expressed his support for Putin and has also been the recipient of significant economic and military aid from Russia over the years. After the Ukraine war, Lukashenko has often emphasized that he won’t hesitate to open a new front against Ukraine in Western Ukraine if necessary and Putin agrees.
Similar to 2014–2015 when the Minsk deal to halt the past conflict in Eastern Ukraine was signed, Biden is now receiving invitations from Belarus for peace.
The Minsk Agreement was a collection of pacts meant to end the conflict in eastern Ukraine between separatists supported by Russia and Ukrainian government forces. The agreements, which were signed in the Belarusian city of Minsk in 2014 and 2015, were recognized as a crucial diplomatic effort to stop the hostilities.
The agreements were mediated by the leaders of Germany, France, Ukraine, and Russia and included provisions for truce like as the removal of heavy weapons and the exchange of prisoners.
Even at that time, Belarus, the host nation of the negotiations, had a significant role in the development and implementation of the Minsk Accord. The negotiations between Ukraine, Russia, Germany, and France were mediated in a significant way by the president of the nation, Alexander Lukashenko.
It was believed that Lukashenko may use his clout to convince Moscow to consent to a ceasefire and other measures to resolve the situation in Ukraine because of his close friendship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In the current geopolitical schene, Lukashenko is just a shadow of Putin. If Putin wanted to take Ukraine entirely, he could have simply asked Lukashenko to enter Western Ukraine. Minsk has already stationed most of its troops at Ukrainian borders. In October 2022, Belarus had gathered 15,000 soldiers close to the Ukrainian border in readiness. At that time, Lukashenko warned “the president of Ukraine and other lunatics” that if they do something similar like the bridge attack on Belarus, “the Crimean Bridge will seem like flowers to them.”
Today, he is calling for peace.
Well, Belarus’s transformation from a rude dude to a soft boy is a remarkable change of heart that has taken everyone by surprise. But, for us, it’s nothing more than Putin’s new scheme to end the war.
Read More: And Ukraine loses Bakhmut
Stalemate and a weight game!
As mentioned earlier, there is a widely held belief that Alexander Lukashenko is closely aligned with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and that any actions or statements made by Lukashenko are likely to have been approved by Putin. Despite the fact that the fight in Ukraine has been going on for 357 days and Russia has made tremendous progress, it has not been possible for Russia to declare a definitive win.
According to Western officials, the fighting in Ukraine has reached a stalemate, with neither Russia nor Kyiv able to make major advances. It is also a reality that Russia has been attempting to enter significant cities, but the Ukrainian defence forces have thus far prevented them from doing so.
But it is also a reality that Western nations, including the United States, have been struggling to provide adequate support to Ukraine, as Russian forces have been destroying almost everything in their path. Anything provided to aid Ukraine is soon consumed by the flames of the war, as if it were a raging inferno.
Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, recently made his first trip in more than three years to Minsk, the city of Belarus. According to rumours that emerged after the visit, he might have attempted to convince President Alexander Lukashenko to dispatch the Belarusian military to Ukraine.
Read More: Did Ukraine use innocent civilians as human shield against Russia in the name of evacuation?
Biden must accept Lukashenko’s invitation to travel to Belarus if he is honest about promoting world peace. If he refuses, he will have to defend his choice in front of the entire world, passing up the chance to meet with Putin and put a stop to the mayhem.
But if he does show up and there is a breakthrough, Belarus will once again be recognized as the nation that contributed to world peace.
Notwithstanding the challenges, the possibility of a peaceful resolution was never discussed in the Russia-Ukraine war; now, however, it is. It remains to be seen if Biden will take a step towards world peace or continue to fuel the war in Ukraine.
The Russia-Ukraine war is becoming more of a waiting game where the world is looking for the bloc which will take the step first step towards peace. As the US-Ukraine bloc is already negotiating a “peace accord” with other nations at the UN, Russia and Belarus have also invited Biden to come to Minsk. Let’s see what happens.
