Moscow (EFE) exteriors” without precedent.
The two leaders exchanged congratulatory telegrams on the occasion of the Day of Unity of the Peoples of Russia and Belarus.
Day of the Unity of the Peoples of Russia and Belarus
“Despite the pressure of unprecedented sanctions from abroad, we are effectively coordinating efforts in the international arena, in the field of defense and security, and successfully implementing programs aimed at strengthening financial, economic, scientific and technological,” Putin wrote to his counterpart.
The head of the Kremlin trusted that both countries will continue to strengthen the full range of ties in the interest of “our brother peoples.”
Lukashenko in turn stated that, “in the face of unprecedented external challenges and threats”, the relations between Belarus and Russia “have adequately passed the test of unity, becoming an example of a true partnership based on the principles of mutual trust, respect and sovereign equality.
The two leaders will participate next Thursday in the Supreme Council of the State of the Union and the day before both will address the situation in Ukraine, according to what Lukashenko announced on Friday.
Russia and Belarus signed the treaty to create a State Union on political and economic integration in the late 1990s, but it was only in 2019 that both parties agreed to 28 programs that were signed by the Russian and Belarusian presidents in November 2021.
Most of them refer to economic issues, such as the harmonization of customs, tax, labor and pension laws, the integration of monetary systems, or the creation of single markets in the field of energy and common policies in the industrial and agricultural sectors. .
Lukashenko, fearing some Belarusians would lose sovereignty, has stressed on several occasions that this will not happen and that Belarus will not be absorbed by Russia.
Four-time Ukrainian kickboxing world champion dies in combat
Four-time world kickboxing champion Vitalii Merinov, a Ukrainian national, died this week in hospital from injuries sustained while fighting Russian forces occupying his country in the eastern Luhansk region, Ukrainian media reported today.
Merinov had joined the Ukrainian army as a volunteer just after the Russian army began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24 last year.
After being wounded in the leg, the athlete from the Ivano-Frankivsk region in western Ukraine returned to the front and continued to fight until he was mortally wounded.
His loss has been confirmed by the mayor of the city of Ivano-Frankivsk, Ruslan Martsinkiv, who reported that the four-time world champion was married and had a two-year-old daughter.
According to the Ukrainian authorities, at least 262 athletes have died as a result of the Russian military aggression against Ukraine, one of Kiev’s arguments for requesting the exclusion of Russian athletes from the next Olympic Games to be held in Paris in 2024.