Zelensky may be hoping for more explicit U.S. support, but no new format for talks to resolve the Ukrainian crisis is likely before Biden meets Putin.

If the EU and the West as a whole do not react harshly and adequately to Lukashenko's trick, then not only Putin, but also Lukashenko, or both, will wipe their feet about this collective West.

Since the elections in August, Protasevich has allegedly been targeted by the Lukashenko regime and has had criminal charges filed against him for allegedly being a terrorist. In Belarus, terrorists can face the death penalty.

Several thousand protesters had been rallying in Georgia’s capital since Sunday, demanding the government fully halt the project.