On Monday, December 19, a meeting of the Presidents of Belarus and the Russian Federation is to be held. According to the state media of both countries, the leaders will discuss " According to analysts at the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), Vladimir Putin is likely to put pressure on Alexander Lukashenko in order to achieve concessions on Russian-Belarusian integration as part of the Union State program..

In turn, the President of Belarus, on the eve of the meeting, began to prepare information conditions in order to evade the final takeover of his country by Moscow.. In his latest statements, Lukashenka emphasizes that the Republic of Belarus is an independent sovereign state and that no one "

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According to analysts, it is now difficult to predict whether Putin will be able to achieve significant concessions to the Belarusian side, because, despite the numerous statements of Alexander Lukashenko about the comprehensive support of the Russian Federation, he has been able to evade the demands of the Russian dictator for quite a long time..

Another important issue that the presidents will most likely discuss at the meeting is a repeated Russian offensive on the territory of Ukraine from the north..

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Recently, the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation Sergei Shoigu and the Minister of Defense of the Republic of Belarus Viktor Khrenin signed a protocol on ensuring regional security in the military sphere. It is possible that in this way the Kremlin is trying to force Minsk to support the continuation of the aggression against Ukraine and the second winter offensive in 2023..

As before, ISW analysts consider such a scenario unlikely, but possible.. However, even if Russian troops attack again from the north, including from the territory of Belarus, this does not mean that the Belarusian forces will be directly involved in this..

But in any case, the planned meeting, at a minimum, "

Meanwhile, a number of Western politicians assessed Russia's readiness for a second attack on Kyiv and warned that the Kremlin is preparing for a protracted war..