Lukashenko and Putin say Belarus 'problems' will be resolved

Pressure mounts on Alexander Lukashenko to go as protests threaten to spill beyond Belarus's borders

• Women in Belarus take protests into their own hands
• It's like a war': armed men roam streets of Minsk

The Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko, and the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, have expressed confidence that all problems that had arisen in Belarus would soon be resolved, the Kremlin said.

These problems should not be exploited by destructive forces seeking to harm the mutually beneficial cooperation between the two countries within the framework of the union state," the Kremlin said in a statement on Saturday.