Imantas Melianas, a senior Lithuanian specialist on ethnic minorities and national security, says that the most important task for the West now is “not to allow Putin to swallow Belarus.” If the Kremlin leader is able to do so, he continues, “a third world war will become inevitable.”

Consequently, he says, any “betrayal regarding Belarus will become a betrayal of Europe as a whole” – a step that will be equivalent today to Russia’s swallowing up of Poland at the end of the 18th century and one that will lead to a new round of Russian attacks against Ukraine and other countries in the region.