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Reuters

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Ukraine’s counteroffensive “has failed” as he hosted Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, his close ally, for talks in St Petersburg on Sunday.
“There is no counteroffensive,” Russian news agencies quoted Lukashenko as saying.
Putin replied: “It exists, but it has failed.”
Ukraine began its long-anticipated counteroffensive last month but has so far made only small gains against well entrenched Russian forces who control more than a sixth of its territory after nearly 17 months of war.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Sunday that Ukraine has taken back about half of the territory seized by Moscow.
“It’s already taken back about 50 per cent of what was initially seized,” Blinken told CNN, adding that “these are still relatively early days of the counteroffensive”.
He said “we’re still looking, I think, at several months”.
Putin said Lukashenko’s visit to Russia would continue through Monday. The two leaders visited a naval museum on Sunday.
A Telegram channel linked to Lukashenko quoted him as saying in a jocular tone that fighters of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group who are now training Belarus’s army were keen to push across the border into Nato member Poland.

“The Wagner guys have started to stress us – they want to go west. ‘Let’s go on a trip to Warsaw and Rzeszow’,” he was quoted as saying. There was no indication that Lukashenko was seriously entertaining that idea.
On Thursday, the Belarusian defence ministry said Wagner fighters had started to train Belarusian special forces at a military range just a few miles from the Polish border.
Poland is moving extra troops towards the border with Belarus in response to the arrival of the Wagner forces who relocated there after staging a short-lived mutiny in Russia last month.
Putin, in response, warned Poland on Friday that any aggression against Belarus would be considered an attack on Russia. He said Moscow would use all means it has to react to any hostility towards Minsk.
Useful partner
Russia and Belarus are linked in a partnership called the “union state” in which Moscow is by far the dominant player. But Lukashenko has proved his usefulness to Putin since the invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, allowing Russia to use his country as a launch pad at the start of the war.
He has subsequently let Russian forces train at his military bases, conducted frequent joint exercises and taken delivery of tactical nuclear weapons which Putin has placed in Belarus in a move broadly condemned in the West.

The Kremlin also credited Lukashenko with brokering last month’s deal to end the Wagner mutiny, which Putin said had briefly threatened to tip Russia into civil war.
Putin said the two leaders would meet on Sunday and Monday and would discuss security and other issues “in great detail and in depth”.
Lukashenko has not committed his small army to join Russia’s war, but the risk of a new attack from Belarusian soil compels Ukraine to protect its northern border, stretching its forces as it tries to step up its counteroffensive in the east and south of the country.
Additional reporting by dpa


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Ukraine war

Putin hosts Lukashenko, calls counteroffensive in Ukraine a failure

Russian President Vladimir Putin (right) and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko during their meeting in St Petersburg on Sunday. Photo: via AP

People take selfies with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday. Photo: EPA-EFE

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko meet people near St Petersburg, Russia, on Sunday. Photo: via AP

Wagner mercenary chief Prigozhin is in Russia, Belarus leader says

Belarus’ President Alexander Lukashenko meets with foreign media at his residence in Minsk. Photo: AFP

Yevgeny Prigozhin in the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don on June 24. Photo: Telegram channel of Concord group via AFP

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko attends a press conference in Minsk, Belarus, on Thursday. Photo: Reuters

Russian President Vladimir Putin (right) and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko during a meeting in the resort city of Sochi, Russia, on June 9. Photo: via AP

Wagner fighters in the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don on June 24. Photo: Reuters

Belarus leader Lukashenko says he told Wagner chief to stop Russian mutiny or be ‘crushed like a bug’

Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin amid the group’s pullout from the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don on Saturday. Photo: Reuters

 Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin. File photo: Kremlin via Reuters

‘Untouchable’ hardline pro-war Putin critic Igor Girkin detained in Moscow

Igor Girkin, also know as Igor Strelkov, the former military chief for Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine and a high-profile Russian hard-line official. Photo: AP

Four accused of downing of flight MH17 are shown on screen as investigators present findings in the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in 2019, five years after the crash that killed 298. Photo: Reuters

Russia’s Putin, target of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant, will skip BRICS summit in South Africa

Russian President Vladimir Putin won’t attend next month’s summit of BRICS leaders in Johannesburg in person, resolving a potential dilemma South Africa faced over whether to execute an International Criminal Court warrant for his arrest if he did come. Photo: Kremlin/dpa

Russia attack on Ukraine’s Odesa kills at least 1, ‘destroys’ UN-protected cathedral

A man walks inside the Odesa Transfiguration Cathedral, damaged in a Russian missile attack in Odesa, Ukraine, on Sunday. Photo: AP

A pile of maize on the pier at the Izmail Sea Port in Ukraine’s Odesa region on Saturday. Photo: AFP

People attend a Mass outside the Odesa Transfiguration Cathedral after it was heavily damaged following Russian missile attacks in Odesa, Ukraine on Sunday. Photo: AP

Firefighters work inside the Odesa Transfiguration Cathedral, severely damaged in a Russian missile attack on Sunday. Photo: AP

Emergency workers gather outside the heavily damaged Odesa Transfiguration Cathedral on Sunday. The city’s largest Orthodox church building was consecrated in 1809. Photo: AP

News

World

Russia & Central Asia

Europe

Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted close ally Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko for talks in St Petersburg on Sunday
Lukashenko was quoted as saying in a jocular manner that Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, training Belarus’s army, is keen to push into Nato member Poland


Lukashenko was quoted as saying, in a jocular tone, that fighters from Russia’s Wagner mercenary group who are training Belarus’s army are keen to push into Nato member Poland.


Vladimir Putin

Belarus

Ukraine

Nato

Putin hosts Lukashenko, calls counteroffensive in Ukraine a failure

Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted close ally Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko for talks in St Petersburg on Sunday Lukashenko was quoted as saying in a jocular manner that Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, training Belarus’s army, is keen to push into Nato member Poland

Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted close ally Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko for talks in St Petersburg on Sunday

Lukashenko was quoted as saying in a jocular manner that Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, training Belarus’s army, is keen to push into Nato member Poland