BELARUSIAN President Alexander Lukashenko is set to visit Beijing this week, China’s Foreign Ministry said today.

China’s assistant minister of foreign affairs Hua Chunying said that Mr Lukashenko is due to visit from Tuesday to Thursday, but gave no details about his agenda.

Belarus has strongly backed Moscow’s war in Ukraine and allowed its territory to be used as a staging ground for the initial invasion a year ago.

The visit comes as top US officials repeated warnings to China against providing military aid to Russia, saying that would bring heavy consequences.

CIA director William Burns repeated the accusations in an interview broadcast on US TV channel CBS on Sunday, saying: “We’re confident that the Chinese leadership is considering the provision of lethal equipment,” without providing evidence.

Mr Burns also said: “We also don’t see that a final decision has been made yet, and we don’t see evidence of actual shipments of lethal equipment.”

Providing such aid “would be a very risky and unwise bet,” he said. The US is a major supplier of arms to Ukraine.

Beijing says it is neutral but also announced a “friendship without limits” with Moscow shortly before the war began. 

China has accused the West of provoking the conflict and “fanning the flames” by providing Ukraine with billions of dollars’ worth of military equipment.

The Chinese have also accused the US of smearing it over the military aid allegations and reiterated that they seek only peace between Russia and Ukraine.

On Friday Beijing issued a proposal calling for a ceasefire and peace talks between Ukraine and Russia. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky cautiously welcomed China’s involvement, but said that success would depend on more detail being provided.