Volodymyr Horbach, Executive Director of the Institute for the Transformation of Northern Eurasia, shared this opinion with Espreso TV.“First, we need to monitor how these Russian-Belarusian exercises conclude. We need to make sure that the troops are leaving Belarus, because I think the issue may not only be about the physical presence of the Russians. There could also be ongoing information and psychological operations — not so much aimed at Ukraine, but rather directed against Poland, Lithuania, and possibly Latvia,” he said.According to the political analyst, “very interesting processes are taking place there”, and “credit must be given to the Poles.”“Poland and the Polish government have long deliberately abandoned Russian oil and gas, though some questions and suspicions remain regarding coal, even though it is also banned by the European Union. Russian coal was previously found in Polish thermal power plants, but that was long before this attack. Now the border has been blocked, stopping the movement of people, goods, and transport. This has severely disrupted the overland export of Chinese goods to EU markets,” Horbach emphasized.He noted that the only real window for transport was through Belarus via rail, which seriously affected China’s position.“Almost immediately, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited Warsaw and held talks, including on this issue — what to do next, how to trade, how to conduct business. And of course, the discussions also touched on how to resolve the Ukraine-Russia war and on what terms it should end. China is now actively focusing its efforts on the European direction. Its goal is to pull the European Union away from the United States. This is a global objective, but also aimed at preserving at least its own interests, profits, revenues, and influence in Europe,” the expert believes.He noted that Belarus is “particularly interesting in this regard”, as Chinese influence there is in fact no less significant than Russian influence.“The Chinese have even conducted some joint military exercises earlier with the Belarusian army without Russia. So, in my view, Trump’s intentions to court Lukashenko are not so much about pulling Lukashenko away from Putin, but rather about using Lukashenko to have a closer connection with Putin.If there is anyone they would want to pull him away from, it is Beijing. In reality, this is impossible, though one might attempt to create some new balance. This venture is doomed to failure from the outset — as futile as trying to make Putin end the war through persuasion and red carpets,” Horbach concluded.