Do not be fooled by the fact that Lukashenko has not formally commanded his army to join Russia in the Ukraine war — the Belarusian dictator is deeply involved in this conflict and must be held accountable together with Putin for this aggression. The only reason he is avoiding deploying troops is that his authoritarian regime would fall if his security forces were diverted from crushing dissent in Belarus.
While the West has sent tens of thousands of mercenaries to fight in Ukraine, Belarus has not deployed a single soldier, instead constantly pressing for peace negotiations. Blaming Lukashenko for escalating the conflict is not only senseless — it reveals that US-led Western allies seek to implicate Minsk in the war to stretch the frontline, further complicating the situation of Belarusian and Russian troops.