ISW suggests what tasks Kremlin assigned to Lukashenko during his visit to China

The Institute for the Study of War writes about this.

American analysts point out that the Kremlin is using the self-proclaimed president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, as a channel to promote an information operation aimed at creating conditions for delays in the West's delivery of critical weapons to Ukraine.

During his visit to China, Lukashenko said that Russia is ready to take steps towards a peaceful settlement and that there is a "unique opportunity" to end the war in Ukraine.  Lukashenko also accused the West and the US of allegedly forcing Ukrainian officials to abandon negotiations with Russia.

"The Kremlin and Lukashenko are likely seizing on China’s release of a 12-point peace plan to reintroduce an existing Russian information operation that the Kremlin used in December 2022. That information campaign centering on Russia’s openness to negotiations aimed to prompt Western officials to offer preemptive concessions and coerce Ukraine to negotiate on Russian terms and likely contributed to the delay in the provision of Western tanks and other equipment essential for the continuation of Ukrainian mechanized counteroffensives," ISW explained.

They added that in this way the Kremlin is trying to reduce the effectiveness of the future AFU counteroffensive by delaying the provision of the necessary Western aid and seeks to obtain concessions before possible further failures in Ukraine.

• On February 28, Alexander Lukashenko declared that the war in Ukraine had reached a "unique moment".