Lukashenko, Aleksandr G

Once He Kept Russia at a Distance. Now He Is a Docile Putin Satrap.

MINSK, Belarus — In a winter military coat trimmed with fur, Aleksandr G. Lukashenko stepped out of his white presidential helicopter for a morning of geopolitical theater. His presidential limousine quickly delivered him to his waiting generals as aides and heavily armed bodyguards fluttered around him, shivering in the icy rain. The strongman leader of […]

As Russian Troops Mass in Belarus, a Ukraine Border Is Largely Undefended

NOVI YARYLOVYCHI BORDER CROSSING, Ukraine — On the other side of this border in northern Ukraine, not visible through the thick pine and birch forests that crowd the E-95 highway but noticeable to passing truckers, a force is gathering in Belarus more potent than anything seen in the country since the fall of the Soviet […]

Iraqis Return From Belarus, but Some Say They Will Try Again to Reach the E.U.

ERBIL, Iraq — Iraq repatriated a second wave of more than 600 migrants from Belarus on Friday after they gave up, at least for now, on a disastrous attempt to try to reach the European Union via its eastern borders. Two Iraqi Airways charter flights landed before dawn in Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan […]

Lithuania Welcomes Belarusians as It Rebuffs Middle Easterners

RUKLA, Lithuania — The emigrants hitchhiked overnight to the Dysna River, the border of their native Belarus. They thought they could wade across the frigid waters, but the spot they chose in haste proved to be so deep they had to swim. On the other side, at dawn two weeks ago, they found a house […]

How Fake News on Facebook Helped Fuel a Border Crisis in Europe

BRUZGI, Belarus — After more than a week sleeping in a frigid encampment on the border between Belarus and Poland, and an abortive foray across the frontier repelled by pepper spray and police batons, Mohammad Faraj gave up this month and retreated to a warm hotel in Minsk, the capital of Belarus. Soon after, however, […]

Risk for Leader of Belarus: Migrants He Lured May Want to Stay

BRUZGI, Belarus — He has ruled with an iron fist for 27 years, surviving huge street protests, multiple rounds of Western sanctions and even alleged plots by his benefactor, Russia, to remove him. But a threat President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko has never before had to contend with is now taking shape in a squalid migrant […]

Melee Erupts Between Migrants in Belarus and Polish Border Forces

BRUZGI, Belarus — He has spent 28 nights, each colder than the one before, choking on campfire smoke and despair on Europe’s doorstep. He made it across the razor wire into Poland three times, only to be grabbed in the forest and forced back into Belarus. His visa for Belarus expired 12 days ago, leaving […]

Europe Adopts New Sanctions Against Belarus

SOKOLKA, Poland — A few miles from here, in the small Polish town of Bohoniki, a young Syrian, Ahmed Al Hasan, was buried Monday. The 19-year-old man died in late October in a river in this freezing, forested buffer zone where thousands of migrants and asylum seekers have been sent by the Belarus government to […]