Lavrov to Visit Belarus June 30

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will pay an official visit to Belarus on June 30, said Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova at a press conference in Moscow on Wednesday.

The Belarusian news agency, Belta, reported thatLavrov's visit coincides with the thirtieth anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Belarus and Russia.

The spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry indicated that "the upcoming talks between the Russian Foreign Minister and his Belarusian counterpart will focus on ways to enhance cooperation in the foreign policy file, to discuss the latest developments of the most prominent international crises."

Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister (FM) Sergei Lavrov said that the special military operation in Ukraine aims at protecting Russians in the Donbas region.

“The Russians in the Donbas region have been betrayed by the French, the Germans, and, of course, the British,” Lavrov added, during an exclusive interview with BBC on Sunday.

In response to a question about whether Russian President Vladimir Putin took his advice before the start of the military operation last February, Lavrov said, “The decision-making mechanism exists in every country, and in the case of the special military operation in Ukraine, this mechanism had been activated in Russia entirely,” noting that there are some things that are not publicly disclosed.