Putin lands in Belarus to pressure ally to join the offensive in Ukraine war

Russia President Vladimir Putin has landed in Belarus to talk military cooperation. He plans to pressure his ex-Soviet alley to join the offensive against Ukraine.

His trip for talks with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko was his first to Minsk since 2019 - before the COVID pandemic and a wave of pro-democracy protests in 2020 that Lukashenko crushed with strong support from the Kremlin.

Russian forces used Belarus as a launch pad for their abortive attack on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv in February, and there has been Russian and Belarusian military activity there for months.