Russian President Vladimir Putin is in Belarus on Monday to meet his President Alexander Lukashenko. The meeting will take place at the Independence Palace in Minsk.
Belarus remains Russia's closest ally and earlier this year, Putin received permission from Lukashenko to allow the Russian army to attack Ukraine from Belarus, which resulted in international sanctions against Belarus.
Russian forces were moved to Belarus in October and will soon conduct military exercises, according to the Russian news agency Interfax.
It is unclear exactly when and where the exercises will take place. According to the Belarusian Defence Ministry, 9,000 Russian troops were transferred to Belarus as part of a "regional grouping" to protect its borders.
An uneasy ally
The move comes amidst growing fears that Russia is regrouping for another large-scale attack on Ukraine from the north early next year. "I have no doubt they will have another go at Kyiv," Ukrainian general Valery Zaluzhny told The Economist on Thursday.
Yet despite the risk of another Russian offensive, Lukashenko didn't come to Russia's aid when it began its offensive on Kyiv from Belarus. Lukashenko has up till now refused to deploy his army in Ukraine.
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The odds that Lukashenko will mobilise now are small, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW). The American military think tank believes that Putin and Lukashenko's meeting will seek to advance a Russian information campaign "that seeks to break Ukrainian will and Western willingness to support Ukraine, however."
Lukashenko is in Putin's debt after he was given cheap Russian loans to keep the country afloat in response to Western sanctions which targeted his regime after it crushed an uprising against an allegedly rigged election in 2020.
