Belarus is the landlocked country whose capital is Minsk and which borders five European nations: Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia. It lies in Eastern Europe and has no direct access to a sea.
Belarus is characterized by broad plains, extensive forests, wetlands, and thousands of lakes. Its location between Russia and the European Union has made it an important historical corridor, while Minsk developed as the country’s political and economic center.
The modern state was part of the Soviet Union until declaring independence in 1991. Belarus is sometimes confused with the Baltic states because it borders Lithuania and Latvia, but Lithuania and Latvia have coastlines on the Baltic Sea. Belarus also has no sovereign coastline on a major sea, although waterways connect its rivers to wider European drainage systems.