Belarus and Russia ratified the Union State Security Pact, expanding the nuclear umbrella and military integration.
Belarusian dictator Aleksandr Lukashenko invites U.S President Donald Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and Russian President Vladimir Putin to Minsk for peace talks.
Belarus criminalizes sharing information on military movements and expands in absentia prosecution of exiled opponents.
Local media reported that a stray drone crashed into power lines in Belarus, causing outages in Mazyr.
Belarus hits record low in the Freedom House report, ranking 192-194 out of 207 globally.
Belarus, Russia ratify Union State security pact, providing for nuclear umbrella, military bases
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko have concluded the ratification of the Union State security guarantees, expanding Russia’s nuclear umbrella over Belarus and deepening the military integration of the two countries.
The Union State security pact was signed on Dec. 6, stipulating that Russian nuclear weapons can be used against an aggressor state — even ones that don’t have nuclear weapons themselves.
Putin signed the law ratifying the agreement on Feb. 28, after speedy consideration in Russia’s State Duma in February. Belarus’s Lukashenko signed the ratification law on March 4, his press office reported. The pact will enter into force after the sides exchange ratification documents.
The security pact signing comes on the same day the Russian parliament ratified another agreement postponing Belarus’s repayment of about $800 million in Russian state loans. Opposition politician Pavel Latushka, formerly an official in the Belarusian foreign ministry, linked the two ratifications.
“Lukashenko got himself into debt with Russia, and now he’s paying with the country’s national sovereignty,” Latushka said.
Beyond expanding the Russian “nuclear umbrella” to cover Belarus, Article 5 of the agreement provides for the establishment of Russian military bases and stationing of Russian troops on the territory of Belarus “to prevent and repel acts of aggression.”
However, the implementation of this provision would require a separate agreement between Minsk and Moscow. Russia has been pushing to establish an air base in Belarus since 2015.
The treaty also obliges the parties to “support” each other in the event of a threat to their constitutional orders — allowing each to potentially intervene to suppress public protests in either of the two countries.
The Union State security agreement lasts for ten years and is automatically extended, unless one of the parties declares its intention to withdraw six months in advance.
According to NATO estimates, Belarus hosted up to 30,000 Russian troops in the buildup to the Russian attack on Kyiv in February-March 2022, in the pretense that they were taking part in the “Union Determination-2022” military drills. Following Russian forces’ withdrawal from the northern front, the number of Russian troops in Belarus gradually fell, with just about 2,000 soldiers now being left, according to the Belarusian Hajun monitoring project.
In September 2025, Belarus is to host up to 13,000 troops for the Zapad-2025 (West-2025) exercises. The Russian-Belarusian plans to hold the exercises have sparked concern among Ukrainian officials.
Kateryna Denisova
Lukashenko claims readiness to host Trump, Zelensky, Putin for talks in Minsk
Minsk is prepared to host the leaders of the United States, Ukraine, and Russia for talks on ending Russia’s war against Ukraine, Lukashenko, a staunch Moscow ally, said in an interview on March 4.
Lukashenko’s remarks came shortly after the United States imposed an immediate freeze on military aid to Ukraine, in a move the White House claimed was meant to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky into entering peace negotiations.
In an interview with U.S. Internet media personality Mario Nawfal, Lukashenko reiterated his praise for U.S. President Donald Trump, and said he was willing to help achieve his goal of brokering peace between Kyiv and Moscow.
“It’s only 200 kilometers from the Belarusian border to Kyiv – half an hour by plane,” Lukashenko told Nawfal.
"You are welcome to come. We will sit down here. We’ll come to an agreement quietly, without noise, without shouting. So tell Trump: I’m waiting for him here, along with (Russian President Vladimir) Putin and Zelensky. We’ll sit down and calmly negotiate. If you want to make a deal.”
The Kremlin has already backed the proposal. “This issue has not been raised or discussed in any way. But, of course, Minsk is the best place for us. It is our main ally, so it is the best place for negotiations,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
In the early days of Russia’s all-out invasion, negotiations between Ukraine and Russia were held in Belarus but were later moved to Istanbul.
Minsk has repeatedly attempted to get a seat at the negotiating table, at the same time requiring “security guarantees” for itself.
Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Heorhiy Tykhyi said, “Belarusian officials have the right to claim a fair hearing in the process of bringing the aggressor and his accomplices to international legal responsibility for the crime of aggression against Ukraine.”
Belarus previously hosted talks between Ukraine, Russia, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in 2014 and 2015, which led to the signing of the Minsk Agreements.
The agreements were meant to stop Russia’s war in eastern Ukraine, but both of the documents were ultimately violated by Russia. Two days before launching the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Putin declared that the Minsk Agreements “no longer existed.”
Lukashenko has been trying to make himself noticed by Trump, rushing to congratulate him on winning the U.S. presidential elections even before the results were confirmed, and promising to nominate President Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize. Following the failure of the rare earth metals deal with Ukraine on Feb. 28, Lukashenko ordered his ministers to look into the issue of mining rare earth metals in Belarus.
Oleg Sukhov
Belarus criminalizes spreading information on movement of military units, broadens grounds for repression of exiled opposition
Updates to the criminal code in Belarus have introduced prison sentences of up to three years for the “unauthorized sharing of information” about the deployment of military units and their movement within the country, Human Rights watchdog Viasna reported on Feb. 28.
The changes to the code also broaden the category of offenses that can be subject to in absentia prosecution.
Since Russia unleashed its all-out invasion of Ukraine, Belarusians have been reporting the movement of Russian troops, and sharing footage and information on Russian troop locations with independent media and open-source intelligence projects. Ninety-three Belarusians have been sentenced on “extremism” charges for doing so.
The updated criminal code, which entered into effect on March 2, essentially outlaws sharing any form of content featuring the military in Belarus during wartime, emergencies, or counter-terrorist operations — unless the authorities have already shared such information.
Violations are punishable by up to three years of imprisonment, or six years, if premeditated and committed by a group, and causing significant damage, the amended code reads.
The updated criminal code also introduces the new status of “a president who ceased to fulfill his duties” and criminalizes violence, threats, and libel against him. According to the current constitution, the incumbent, Alexander Lukashenko, can be “re-elected” once more and rule until 2035.
Although there are no apparent signs of an impending transition of power, the Belarusian authorities have established an extra-governmental body — the All-Belarus People’s Assembly, which is headed by Lukashenko — to which the dictator could “retire” after leaving the presidency, while still wielding considerable influence.
Drone crashes into high-voltage power lines in Belarus, causing local blackout
A stray Russian attack drone crashed into high-voltage power grid lines at a thermal power plant on Feb. 27, causing the most significant damage by a drone in Belarus so far, Flagshtok, a local news outlet in the Homiel region, has reported.
Russian drone incursions into the Belarusian airspace have risen sharply since July 2024. At least 395 drones were recorded flying over the country in the second half of the year, and this year 94 were spotted in January alone. The Belarusian authorities don’t comment on the incidents, and never publicly objected to them with their ally – Moscow.
On the morning of Feb. 27, residents of Mazyr, Homiel Oblast, about 45 kilometers from the border with Ukraine, were cut off from heating and hot water supplies. Local state energy company Homielenergo attributed the problem to a breakdown in the rather old heat supply system, without elaborating on the cause. Heating and hot water supplies were restored after a full day of repair work.
According to Flagshtok’s sources, the drone crashed into the high-voltage lines of a thermal power plant, triggering its automatic protection system, which led to a full shutdown of the plant, which is located south of the Mazyr Oil Refinery — a strategic object reportedly protected by Belarusian air defenses. Restarting the plant caused a fault in the piping system.
On the same night, another drone crashed and set fire to a farm building in Ziabrauka, a village next to a military airfield in the Homiel Oblast. Residents reported the sound of gunfire and a blast at around 4 a.m.
Belarus given its lowest ever ranking in Freedom in the World report
Belarus ranked 192-194th out of 207 countries and territories worldwide on the level of political and civil liberties, according to global human rights watchdog Freedom House’s Freedom in the World report, which was published on Feb. 26.
The Freedom in the World report, first published in 1973, tracks the condition of political rights and civil liberties around the globe. According to its authors, global freedom declined in 2024 for the 19th consecutive year, and Belarus received some of the “worst aggregate scores” for political rights and civil liberties.
The country scored just seven points out of 100, sharing its position with Azerbaijan and Myanmar.
The report also notes Minsk’s role in the indoctrination of Ukrainian children forcibly deported from the occupied territories. According to the recent estimates by Belarusian opposition People’s Anti-Crisis Management initiative, up to 3,500 Ukrainian children from Russia-occupied Ukrainian territories were transported to Belarus.
Belarus is also one of the most repressive countries for lawyers. Over the past four years, up to 27% of Belarusian lawyers were disbarred or lost their licenses after representing political prisoners in courts, U.S. government-funded broadcaster RFE/RL reported, citing the International Observatory of Lawyers.
