‘It’s slow because he cares’

Belarusian president claims Putin’s humanitarian restraint in Ukraine limits Russia’s advance

On Friday, Vladimir Putin met with his Belarusian counterpart, Alexander Lukashenko, at a remote monastery in Russia’s northern Karelia region. After a religious service, the two presidents sat down on a bench outside and fielded questions from reporters, focusing on Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine and the lack of progress on negotiating a ceasefire. Putin and Lukashenko also commented on anti-corruption politics in Ukraine and the recent U.S.–E.U. trade agreement. Meduza summarizes their remarks.

Stalled negotiations

“Frankly, we can wait if Ukraine’s leadership thinks now isn’t the right time and that it’s better to hold off. That’s fine; we are ready to wait,” Putin told journalists, before repeating his claim that the Zelensky administration lacks legal legitimacy. “I don’t want to get into the details right now, but the current government in Ukraine is not based on the Ukrainian constitution,” he said.

Lukashenko also ridiculed Zelensky, arguing that the Ukrainian leader’s calls for a meeting with Putin are mere political theater. “‘I want to meet with Putin!’ he says. But why complain? Lay the groundwork and make an official statement,” the Belarusian president added, contending that Kyiv is knowingly sabotaging any negotiations.

Putin reiterated that Russia’s war aims remain as he outlined last summer: the complete withdrawal of Ukrainian armed forces from the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia regions; recognition of Russian sovereignty over these regions and Crimea; an official renunciation by Kyiv of its plans to join NATO; as well as the lifting of Western sanctions. “The key thing is to address the root causes of this crisis — that’s essential,” Putin insisted.

One of the most sensitive issues in the Russia–Ukraine talks is the return of Ukrainian children forcibly relocated to Russia. According to lead negotiator Vladimir Medinsky, Moscow “thoroughly processed” a list of 339 children provided by Kyiv and found that some of the children have already been returned to Ukraine. He said the rest will be sent to Ukraine once their legal guardians are found, while “50 people turned out to be adults.” According to the Zelensky administration, however, Russia has provided “only partial information for less than a fifth of the children,” and only six of the listed children have in fact been returned to Ukraine so far.

Alexander Lukashenko referred to this debate as “a lot of noise about the kids,” insisting that Russia actually rescued children abandoned in front-line areas. “What did Russia do wrong? There’s a war on, and the children were left without guardians, so they were fed and clothed. Yet that’s what [Russia] is blamed for. Why? Let’s sort things out through negotiation. The exchanges are ongoing,” said Lukashenko, at which point Putin interjected: “It turned out there weren’t that many children.”

Sovereignty and foreign interventionism

The two presidents also commented on the recent scandal in Ukraine surrounding the Zelensky administration’s reversed attempt to strip two major anti-corruption agencies of their independence. “There is no sovereignty. And don’t be so indignant: you took the money, and whoever gave it wanted to control you as a non-sovereign state,” said Lukashenko, referring to the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO), which were established and empowered as part of Ukraine’s agreements with Western partners. According to Lukashenko, these agencies are foreign impositions that render Ukraine a vassal to the West.

Adding to Lukashenko’s remarks, Putin said institutions like NABU and SAPO represent the same interventionism that fuels doomed Western efforts to “export democracy.” The Russian president also reflected on the dangers of corruption itself, pointing out that it exists in all countries, “but the issue is the degree of corruption and a society’s ability and willingness to fight this phenomenon.” He added that corruption is particularly ingrained in American politics. “In fact, they created the institution of lobbying,” Putin said.

In a separate remark about transatlantic foreign policy, Lukashenko and Putin agreed that Europe’s recent trade agreement with the United States, widely viewed as lopsided and damaging to the former, is accelerating Europe’s “deindustrialization.”

’Not a single loss has been in vain’

Vladimir Putin also made extensive comments about the state of Russia’s advances in Ukraine. He told reporters that he recently discussed the issue with Defense Minister Andrey Belousov and General Staff Chief Valery Gerasimov, demanding an honest assessment of the situation at the front. “Our troops are advancing along the entire line of contact — everywhere: in the border zone, in the Donetsk [People’s] Republic, in Luhansk, in Zaporizhzhia, in Kherson — everywhere, in all sectors,” Putin said.

Noting their location in the monastery, Putin recalled the Soviet Union’s losses in World War II and credited those fighters with “creating the conditions for today’s soldiers, who are now in action, to move forward, to have that opportunity.” The president then added: “In this sense, not a single loss has been in vain.”

Putin argued that Russian troops now fully control the city of Chasiv Yar — an advance that demonstrates why Moscow’s “adversaries and detractors” have shifted from talk of “the need to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia on the battlefield” to desperate efforts to halt Russia’s offensive. “They want to stop it, and then deal with rearming and restaffing,” Putin claimed.

Lukashenko warned that Russia’s capture of Chasiv Yar opens the door to control of Kramatorsk, “which is essentially the center of Ukraine’s Special Military Operation [sic].” “Bit by bit, the Russians will nibble away, take it all, move forward, and win it back,” he added, prompting Putin to remark: “We’ll take it back. It’s ours.”

Lukashenko also said he recently asked Putin to explain why the advance in Ukraine has been so slow. “‘It’s because I care about the people,’ he told me,” recalled the Belarusian president. He then praised Putin for keeping casualties below those suffered during World War II.