Vladimir Putin has landed in Minsk for talks with the Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko, Russian state media reported, amid growing fears that Moscow is pushing its closest ally to join a new ground offensive against Ukraine, writes The Guardian.

The Russian leader’s trip will be his first to Minsk since 2019, and comes as he has been taking a more public role in his war in Ukraine.

Lukashenko has previously allowed the Kremlin to use his country as a platform to send tens of thousands of Russian troops into Ukraine, while Russian war jets have taken off from Belarusian bases. But Lukashenko has not joined the war directly or sent his own troops into the fight, at times even subtly criticising the invasion, saying he felt the conflict was “dragging on”.

Speaking to Russian news agencies, the Kremlin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Belarus was Russia’s “number one ally”, but that suggestions that Moscow wanted to pressure Minsk into joining what it calls its “special military operation” were “stupid and unfounded fabrications”.