Putin Ally Admits Ukraine War Benefits West as Russia 'Bogged Down'

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said Friday that Russia's invasion of Ukraine should be perceived as a "gift" to the West.

Lukashenko has been one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's most trusted allies throughout the Russia-Ukraine war that began last February, who recently attempted to procure additional members to the small "Union State" alliance by saying any nation that joins the cause will be provided with nuclear weapons. In addition, Belarus will soon store Russian nuclear warheads for the first time since the fall of the Soviet Union.

The West, notably members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), quickly galvanized upon Russia's military venture into Ukraine. It has led to countless sanctions against Moscow and a renewed period of unwavering international support for Ukraine, prompting President Joe Biden to proclaim in late February in Poland that "NATO is stronger than it's ever been."

"Let's face it: we gave them [the West] a gift when we got bogged down in Ukraine," Lukashenko said during a meeting with the heads of the security councils of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, according to Ukrainian news outlet Ukrainska Pravda. "This is, of course, a gift to them. And here they started clinging to it to bring our space to its knees."

The Belarusian president added during the meeting that the West's major focus is not on Russia but China.

Artyom Shraibman, a Belarusian political analyst and founder of Sense Analytics consultancy, told Newsweek via Telegram on Friday that he believes Lukashenko's reference to the "gift" is an acknowledgement that the unity of Western forces has caused Russia and Belarus to spend numerous resources on the war.

"In his mind it's basically the West finding the way to help Russia fail without fighting it directly," Shraibman said.

Asked why Lukashenko could not have foreseen the West standing up strongly in retaliation to Putin's invasion, Shraibman added that the Belarusian president was likely already too attached to Putin's hip to be able to make any other determination than to fight alongside him.

Mikhail Troitskiy, professor of practice at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told Newsweek via email on Friday that Lukashenko's statements should be taken with a grain of salt due to his history of making comments with the intent of manipulation.

"His point was rather that before starting the war, Russia and Belarus—and personally Putin, and Lukashenko as a mediator—exhausted all peaceful options to ensure their own security in the face of the western onslaught on China (via Belarus, Russia and Eurasia)," Troitskiy said.

He added: "Lukashenko puts the blame for the full-scale invasion of Ukraine on the rigidity of the Ukrainian and western positions since 2014. He stresses that Ukraine was cheating when it signed the Minsk agreements that Lukashenko supposedly helped broker. [The fact that] Russia got stuck in Ukraine is just one problem that the West rushed to exploit mercilessly, according to Lukashenko."

Questions Surround Lukashenko's Health

Lukashenko made news recently due to questions by some about his health, and potential ramifications on the Russia-Belarus pact.

During Russia's Victory Day festivities in early May, Lukashenko was seen with a visible bandage on his right arm and eventually left the event early, skipping a meal with Putin and a handful of other Russian allies.

It wasn't until about two weeks later when the 68-year-old said in a video broadcast by a state-run news outlet, "I'm not going to die, guys."

Meanwhile, Russian officials said the situation was not as dire as reports indicated, with one official saying Lukashenko did not have COVID-19 or a serious ailment, but was simply just "sick."

It's been perceived differently by Belarusian pro-democratic leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, however, who previously told Newsweek that a life-threatening medical situation could lead to "chaos" in Belarus.