Lukashenko unexpectedly met with Putin at his residence in Valdai, where the Russian president does not hold official meetings

Lukashenko unexpectedly met with Putin at his residence in Valdai, where the Russian president does not hold official meetings

Alexander Lukashenko met with Vladimir Putin at his residence in Valdai. Minsk and the Kremlin released information about the meeting after... pic.twitter.com/Zf7rJXjkQP

— Agency News (@agents_media) June 26, 2026

Lukashenko unexpectedly met with Putin at his residence in Valdai, where the Russian president does not hold official meetings

Alexander Lukashenko met with Vladimir Putin at his residence in Valdai. Minsk and the Kremlin released information about the meeting after Lukashenko had likely returned to Belarus. The visit took place the day after the Belarusian leader publicly demanded that Russian Ambassador Boris Gryzlov not drag Minsk into a war with Ukraine. The suddenness of the visit may also be indicated by the fact that the meeting took place at Putin’s residence in Valdai, where the president does not invite international leaders.

Details. The first official message about Lukashenko’s trip to Russia appeared at 16:00 Moscow time in the telegram channel of the press service of the Belarusian president, “Pul First”. The message said that “the agenda of Belarusian-Russian cooperation is the situation in the region and the world.”

• Two hours later, “Pul First” reported that the tete-a-tete meeting between the presidents of Belarus and Russia had begun. It takes place at the residence in Valdai.
• ️ The Telegram channel also posted a video of Lukashenko’s arrival at an unnamed airport.
• ️ According to the Agency’s OSINT analysis, the airfield in the video is similar to Khotilovo-2. This is evidenced by the configuration of the site, the caponier visible behind the Il-96 and buildings with pipes in the background of Lukashenko (see illustrations). The photo was probably taken around 10:00-10:30.

• The information that the visit took place earlier is confirmed by FlightRadar24 data. According to them, the plane, which Lukashenko regularly uses, took off from Minsk today at 9:46 Moscow time and headed north-west (the Sistema project was the first to draw attention to this). After 45 minutes of flight, the plane turned off the transponder over Andreapol in the Tver region. At about 12 noon Moscow time, the same aircraft turned on the transponder over Bukholovo, a village 40 kilometers southeast of Khotilovo-2, and almost 50 minutes later landed in Minsk.
• ️ During Lukashenko’s arrival, traffic was stopped on the M-11 highway in the area of ​​Putin’s residence in Valdai, users previously reported and the Google map testified.

• ️ Later, information about the meeting between Putin and Lukashenko in Valdai was confirmed by the Kremlin. Press Secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov clarified that the leaders discussed the agenda of the Union State, trade and economic cooperation and regional security. The president will not make any statements following the meeting, Peskov said.

Residence in Valdai . At the residence in Valdai, the president lives with his current family - former gymnast Alina Kabaeva and two sons, Project previously wrote .

• ️ Official meetings are almost never held here. From time to time, skimpy stories about private events appeared in the press. In 2008, jazzman Igor Butman said that he played in Valdai for Putin, Larisa Dolina sang that evening. Singer Natalya Vetlitskaya and even some Western artists also wrote about the performance at the residence. The ex-official told Project that the president regularly brought his hockey partners to Valdai - an indoor ice arena was built there for Putin’s hobby.
• ️ Lukashenko probably came here in June 2022. His plane flew to Khotilovo.

Context. The day before, Lukashenko, at a meeting with Russian Ambassador Boris Gryzlov, announced Belarus’ reluctance to be drawn into the war between Russia and Ukraine. At the same time, he publicly confirmed a leak that appeared earlier this week that the Kremlin, through Gryzlov, is pushing Minsk to take a more active role in the hostilities.

• ️ Kiev is also putting pressure on Minsk. Vladimir Zelensky last week demanded that Lukashenko within a week remove the equipment located on the territory of Belarus that is correcting Russian air strikes. This week, the Ukrainian president said Minsk had complied with the demand. After this, Kiev drew attention to the military infrastructure being built in Belarus. According to the President of Ukraine, Russian documents describe it “in the context of the tasks of the so-called SVO.”