Voters in pro-Russia Belarus agreed Monday to let Vladimir Putin park nuclear weapons and host Russian troops in their country, which sits just north of Ukraine.
The vote was part of a package of constitutional reforms that also included extending the presidency of Alexander Lukashenko, who has held the office since the country was declared independent in 1994. Lukashenko has been Moscow’s most stalwart ally during Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, even as the world has united against the Kremlin aggression. U.S. intelligence expects Lukashenko to send his 48,000-man army into the war as early as Monday, and the European Union was moving to sanction Belarus.
FULL COVERAGE OF THE WAR IN UKRAINE FROM WASHINGTON EXAMINER
“We will target the other aggressor in this war, Lukashenko’s regime, with a new package of sanctions, hitting their most important sectors,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Sunday.
Nearly 80% of voters turned out for the Belarus referendum, Central Election Commission head Igor Karpenko claimed, with two-thirds backing the amendments, Russian news agencies reported. The referendum carried through on a promise Lukashenko made after winning a hotly disputed election in 2020. The amendments create term limits of two five-year terms for the president, but the rule won’t apply to the 67-year-old former Soviet soldier.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Among the other constitutional changes were a grant of immunity for former leaders accused of committing crimes while in office
Like Ukraine, Belarus had Soviet nuclear weapons when the superpower was broken up in 1991 and transferred them to Russia. The vote means they would agree to let Russia send nuclear weapons back under its control.
