Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who is considered the last dictator in Europe, will visit Russia on Friday, where he will be hosted by his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in the Black Sea city of Sochi, the Kremlin said in a statement, CNN reports.

In comments made at the start of the meeting, Putin said he would brief Lukashenko on the state of the Russian economy, which he said was “stable and reliable,” on his meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and on his discussion of “the situation in region”, as well as about Ukraine, news.ro notes.

“I want to inform you in detail that we are completing the budget process. Everything is stable and reliable here, which pleases. I say this because we both know very well: the state of the Russian economy is certainly reflected in our interaction within the Union. We have mutual questions, mutual obligations in this regard,” Putin told Lukashenko.

In 1999, Russia and Belarus signed the Treaty on State Union – an agreement aimed at deepening cooperation between the two countries in the field of economic and defense policy.

“You know, I recently had a meeting with the leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. I would like to inform you about how the discussion went, about the situation in the region, which is also important, and, of course, about our most pressing problem – the situation with Ukraine, around the Ukrainian crisis,” Putin said.

“I am very glad to see you. Thank you for agreeing to come,” he added.

In turn, Lukashenko told his Russian colleague, the Belarusian agency BelTA reports, that his country recently delivered 60,000 tons of diesel fuel and 60,000 tons of gasoline to Russia and is ready to increase supplies.

“If we have to reduce supplies to foreign markets and increase supplies for domestic consumption, this will not be a problem,” Lukashenko said, according to The Guardian.

According to the Russian state news agency TASS, this meeting was the seventh this year between the two leaders. The last face-to-face meeting took place on July 23 in St. Petersburg.

Belarus has played an increasingly important role in supporting Russia’s military efforts in Ukraine, from treating wounded Russian soldiers to hosting Russian tactical nuclear weapons and even hosting Wagner Group mercenaries after Yevgeny Prigozhin staged a failed coup against Moscow in June.

Belarus’s involvement in Russia’s war prompted the European Parliament this week to call Lukashenka an “accomplice” to Russia’s war crimes in Ukraine. In a resolution adopted on Wednesday, the parliament called Belarus a “satellite state of Russia” and suggested applying the same sanctions against Minsk as it does now against Russia.