An adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky said negotiations were well under way for Ukraine to secure its next tranche of IMF credits in September.

Lukashenko made his allegations amid rising tensions over the mass concentration of Russian troops on the border with Ukraine, with Western countries urging Moscow to pull its forces back.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, speaking after a virtual meeting of bloc foreign ministers, sounded more alarms, and said the Russian troop presence had grown to 150,000 along Ukraine's eastern frontier. Calling it the biggest military buildup ever near Ukraine's borders, he added “a spark” was all that was needed to set off a major war.