Lukashenko’s ‘Attack card’ raises many questions | Abroad

A short video shared on Twitter by Belarusian journalist Tadeusz Giczan shows Lukashenko pointing to a map of Ukraine divided into four parts at a presentation to military personnel. Giczan writes that “this looks like a real invasion map.” Lukashenko is an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Lukashenko’s map shows red arrows from Belarus and Russia pointing deep into Ukraine, with pincers over Kiev (the country’s beleaguered capital) and others reaching from the east all the way to the Dnieper in the heart of the country. The video appeared to have been published by a Belarus pro-state Telegram channel.

A former British officer commented on the high-profile video on Sky News this morning. Lukashenko refers to the four military regions of Ukraine. The question is whether this points to a future division of the country. But there are also attack arrows to be seen towards Transnistria, towards Romania.

Transnistria is actually a separatist province of Moldova – similar to Donetsk and Luhansk – that is thriving thanks to the bitcoin industry. The country, an independent microstate that is only recognized by a few other countries, runs entirely on cheap Russian gas.

On Lukashenko’s map you can clearly see a thrust from the sea towards Moldova, according to the expert on the British channel. “They are also in the process of linking Donetsk to Crimea. Mariupol and Kherson are key cities in the corridor there in the south.” It is unclear whether Lukashenko has been very careless or whether he is playing a game with fake news.

The British government had already announced that it would punish Belarus for supporting the Russian invasion of Ukraine. London will begin by imposing sanctions on four senior defense officials, including the Chief of General Staff. Two military enterprises are also being tackled. Elsewhere in Europe, too, there are growing calls for sanctions to be imposed on the regime’s accomplice in Moscow. Russian soldiers were allowed to advance from Belarus to the Ukrainian capital Kiev.

Lukashenko, often referred to as ‘Europe’s last dictator’, is an authoritarian who has been in power since 1994. He is widely regarded as a puppet of Putin and relies heavily on the Kremlin’s support to stay in power. There were mass protests against Lukashenko in Belarus in 2020 after he won a sixth term in an election widely considered rigged.

The Belarusian leader was globally convicted last year for grounding a Ryanair flight (which was escorted by fighter jet to Minsk, the capital of Belarus), citing a security threat, in order to arrest a prominent dissident. Experts said Lukashenko would not have been involved in such a brutal move without Putin’s consent.

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