Belarus has effectively ceded control to Kremlin, says opposition leader

Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya says Putin ally Alexander Lukashenko is not controlling our military any more'

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Alexander Lukashenko can boast membership of the tiny club of world tyrants who still call the Russian president Vladimir Putin an ally. But in enabling Putin's war on Ukraine, the Belarus dictator has in effect ceded control of his country to the Kremlin, the exiled Belarus opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya believes.

Lukashenko denies that his armed forces are operating in Ukraine or that he plans to enter the war on Russia's side. But Belarus's military is now indirectly under Kremlin control, Tsikhanouskaya said in an interview with the Guardian.