Opposition leader says Belarus should not fight for Russia

Belarus’s exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya (AP/PA)

An opposition leader in exile from Belarus has said that her country’s soldiers should lay down their arms if they are deployed to Ukraine under pressure from Russia.

Russia used Belarus as a staging ground for troops and weapons when it invaded Ukraine eight months ago. Concerns persist that the authoritarian president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, might agree to send his own troops south into Ukraine.