TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin visited his Belarusian counterpart and close ally in Minsk on Friday for talks, after which he questioned whether Volodymyr Zelenskyy has the legitimacy to negotiate on behalf of Ukraine.
Russia is ready to hold talks on the war in Ukraine, Putin said, but Zelensky’s five-year term would end on May 20.
However, Zelensky has ruled out holding new presidential elections while his country is at war – something Putin apparently ignored in his comments to reporters.
Ukrainian law bans elections during martial law, which has been in place since Russia launched its invasion in February 2022. The country would have to change the law for elections during a state of war.
Russian officials have repeatedly drawn attention to the issue of Zelensky’s term in office in the past week.
“Of course we are aware that the legitimacy of the current head of state has come to an end,” Putin said at a news conference in Minsk after talks with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
“We must be completely sure that we are dealing with legitimate authorities,” said Putin, who has repeatedly stated that Russia is ready for talks with Ukraine.
However, Zelensky has rejected the conditions Russia has set for talks, including allowing Russia to keep territory that Kremlin forces have seized since the February 2022 invasion.
An international peace conference on Ukraine will be held in Switzerland in June, but Russia has not been invited and Putin has dismissed the importance of the conference.
The two-day visit to Belarus was one of several foreign trips Putin used to kick off his fifth term in office. Since his inauguration on May 7, he has also gone to China and is expected in Uzbekistan on Sunday.
Russia and Belarus are maintaining increasingly close relations and eventually envisage the formation of a so-called ‘union state’.
Lukashenko has given Moscow permission to deploy Russian tactical nuclear weapons and troops in Belarus, which shares a 1,084-kilometer border with Ukraine. In 2023, Russia moved some of its tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus.
Unlike nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles that can destroy entire cities, tactical nuclear weapons intended for use against troops on the battlefield are less powerful. Such weapons include aerial bombs, short-range missile warheads and artillery ammunition.
Deploying tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus would allow Russian aircraft and missiles to reach potential targets in Ukraine more easily and quickly if Moscow decides to use them. It also expands Russia’s ability to attack several NATO allies in Eastern and Central Europe.
Russia has also used Belarus, which depends on Russian loans and cheap energy, as a base for the war in Ukraine, deploying some of its troops there.
The two countries began military exercises using tactical nuclear weapons earlier this month.
Moscow said the exercises, first publicly announced on May 6, were in response to statements by Western officials pointing to a possible deeper involvement in the war in Ukraine. The exercises started this week.
Belarus launched its maneuvers on May 7 with missiles and fighter planes capable of carrying tactical nuclear weapons.
