Among Putin’s closest allies, only Belarus voices support on Ukraine.

President Vladimir V. Putin met with his five closest allies on Monday. Only one of them spoke up to support him on Ukraine.

In a gilded hall at the Kremlin, Mr. Putin hosted a summit of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, which is Russia’s answer to NATO. The alliance of six post-Soviet states was celebrating the 30-year anniversary of its founding. But the meeting quickly turned into a demonstration of Mr. Putin’s isolation.

President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko of Belarus — who has supported Mr. Putin’s war in Ukraine but has not sent troops — criticized the other members of the alliance for insufficiently backing Russia and Belarus against Western sanctions.

“If we are separate, we’ll just be crushed and torn apart,” Mr. Lukashenko said.

The leaders of the other four C.S.T.O. members — Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan — did not even mention Ukraine in their televised remarks. Read more

@nytimes