Lukashenko doesn’t see Belarus’ further integration with Russia.

 During a meeting in Minsk on December 19, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko apparently rejected Russian President Vladimir Putin’s attempts to force Belarus to make concessions on Russian-Belarusian integration, according to analysts from the ISW. Putin and Lukashenko have refrained from publicly discussing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with both leaders saying Belarus still faces a Western threat. At the same time, the ISW continues to believe that Belarus’ participation in Putin’s war against Ukraine is unlikely. Russian press secretary Dmytro Peskov also stated that Putin did not go to Belarus to persuade Lukashenka to join the war. Peskov also categorically denied Putin’s intention to invade Ukraine a few days before the start of the offensive, but this denial is most likely an attempt to hide Putin’s desperate desire to involve Lukashenka in the war and his apparent failure to secure this assistance yet again, the ISW emphasized.