Minsk

Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko said today that Minsk had absolutely no interest in war and that conflict could only erupt if Belarus or its close ally Russia were directly attacked, Reuters reported.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will visit Ukraine on Feb. 3 as part of efforts to calm down tension due to the Russian confrontation in eastern Ukraine.

China has told the United States it wants to keep all countries involved in the crisis in Ukraine calm and avoid escalating tensions, while Washington has called for de-escalation and warned of security and economic risks in the event of Russian aggression, Reuters reports.

Within the scope of mediation efforts, Ankara has invited Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Turkey for a face-to-face meeting amid rising tension in the region, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Jan. 20.

He said that the population in the war-torn east of Ukraine, a zone that is currently at the center of new tensions between Moscow and the West, was affected by "Russophobia", which, in his words, is "the first step towards genocide".

"Vladimir Bazanov and his wife were granted a Schengen visa at the request of UEFA. The visa was issued by the territorially responsible Hungarian consulate on May 21, 2021 on behalf of Switzerland, acting within the framework of the visa representation agreement," the Foreign Ministry wrote in a statement to BIRN.

Albania, Montenegro and North Macedonia are not likely to be affected economically by a ban on food imports imposed by Belarus, which starts on January 1.

Although not part of the EU, they have joined recent increased EU and Western sanctions on Belarus, imposed over the migrant crisis at the Polish border, for which Minsk is blamed.

US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin talked for about two hours on a secure video link on Tuesday amid escalating tensions between Russia and Ukraine, world media reported.

Thousands of migrants, mostly from the Middle East, have flocked to Europe after Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko announced in May that he was easing measures against those wishing to emigrate to the West.

Hope for de-escalating the crisis, which has seen thousands camping in desperate conditions on the border for weeks, had been mounting in recent days, after German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke with Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko twice by phone.