Belarus leader meets with Russian president in Sochi. According to Vladimir Putin, they scheduled this meeting at the SCO summit in Samarkand. At first, the heads of state planned to discuss the bilateral agenda right at the summit, but in the end it was decided to hold a separate meeting.

“West is still blocking the supply of Belarusian fertilizers to the global market. “It is very strange, because the global market, developing countries, are in dire need of these products. We have specific plans across a number of areas, a number of major projects. The government has completed, by and large, the preparation of these projects. We will discuss all this”, - said Vladimir Putin.

“The development of our economies and the overall existence of our states changed dramatically over the past three months. We were predicted to collapse, fall, and so on. Yet, life is full of opportunities: we need someone, someone needs us. And we found partners to successfully cooperate with and develop our economies”, - added Aleksandr Lukashenko.

Russia used Belarus as a staging post for its latest invasion of Ukraine. In February 2022, despite Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov saying that Russian troops would be “pulled back to their permanent bases” after the conclusion of joint military drills with Belarus, Moscow instead launched its failed attempt to take Kyiv.

Two days ago, Lukashenko appeared to rule out mobilisation in Belarus, saying: “The mobilisation is in Russia … there will be no mobilisation (here)”.