Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko on Tuesday congratulated Russian President Vladimir Putin for ending the Covid-19 pandemic and saving the world.
The pair met at the Vostochny Cosmodrome space launch facility in eastern Russia in what was Putin's first visit outside Moscow since Russia launched its war in Ukraine on February 24.
"I told Putin: listen, good on you, war aside, you instantly ended all this coronavirus thing in the world, everyone recovered,” Lukashenka told reporters after the meeting.
He also mocked vaccination and mask mandates, saying the pandemic has been used by some to enrich themselves.
"We need to think about this when everything is over.... Officials involved in finding new strains quickly got rich... They have used the pandemic in re-aligning the world".
Russia sent around 100,000 troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24 from both Russian and Belarusian territory in what it called a "special military operation" designed to "demilitarise" and "denazify" Ukraine.
Russia’s indiscriminate use of weapons that have killed Ukrainian civilians and children, destroyed civilian infrastructure have drawn widespread condemnation.
Images of corpses lining the streets and bodies stuffed into plastic bags in Bucha have shaken the world, raising calls for credible investigations and accountability.
The European Union, the United Kingdom, the United States and others have included Belarus in the sweeping sanctions imposed on Russia for being an accomplice of the aggressor.
