Lengthy earlier than Russia invaded Ukraine, Russia developed a plan in 2020 to enter and occupy Belarus as a result of it confronted mass protests towards President Alexander Lukashenko, in response to the Ukrainian protection ministry.

The ministry's foremost intelligence directorate in Kyiv stated on Tuesday that Moscow had outlined the justification to invade their neighbor "after the falsification" of the Belarusian presidential election by which Lukashenko claimed victory with simply over 80 % of the vote.

Ukraine launched what it stated have been Russian navy paperwork displaying a plot for Moscow to "suppress standard protests" sparked by the now exiled opposition candidate Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who stated she gained a first-round victory with 60 % of the vote.

The paperwork launched by Kyiv on Tuesday stated an info marketing campaign had been underway in Belarus to construct the case for regime change, a improvement that Russia feared may draw it right into a full-scale conflict with NATO.

Lukashenko and Putin
This mix of images created on April 12, 2022 reveals Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko (L) and Russia's President Vladimir Putin. A leaked intelligence report from Ukraine's protection ministry stated that Russia was planning to invade Belarus in 2020. MIKHAIL KLIMENTYEV/Getty Photos

The authenticity of the paperwork has not been verified, and Newsweek has contacted the Kremlin and Russia's protection ministry for remark.

The paperwork (comprising 13 pages) are headed by the phrase "secret" within the prime proper hand nook with a title describing it as a plan to regroup "formations and navy models of the first tank military within the space of the mission."

Russian troops can be deployed underneath the quilt of a joint train with Belarusian armed forces stated the doc, which was signed by Main Basic Andrei Kolesnikov, whom Ukraine says was killed in Mariupol on March 11.

Brian Whitmore, a non-resident senior fellow on the Atlantic Council's Eurasia Middle, stated such a plan was "believable," given the strained ties between Moscow and Minsk in 2020.

Dealing with a in the reduction of in Russian subsidies, Lukashenko was resisting strain from Moscow to host a Russian navy base in Belarus and to pursue nearer navy and financial integration.

Earlier in 2020, then U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo traveled to Belarus to "normalize" strained ties. Lukashenko's pivot to the west to protect sovereignty involved Russia's navy intelligence, the GRU, and its Overseas Intelligence Service, the SVR.

However Lukashenko has since been remoted by the west after a brutal crackdown after the disputed election, making him extra depending on Vladimir Putin.

Belarus has not contributed troops to the conflict in Ukraine but however it's a staging space for Russian forces, and Lukashenko has allowed Putin's forces to launch airstrikes from his territory.