President Alexander Lukashenko has said that the “harassment of Belarusians” in Ukraine could prompt Minsk towards undertaking a “special operation”.
Lukashenko, who emphasised that there were no Belarusian soldiers or armaments in Ukraine, as Russia did not require such assistance for its “special operation” there, aimed at “protecting the people” of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics from the “genocide” waged by the Ukrainian authorities, said that Belarusians were being caught on the territory of that country and subjected to beatings.
Such incidents trigger outrage and may prompt Minsk to launch a “special operation” to release its citizens, said Alexander Lukashenko.
The Belarusian president stressed that rockets are not flying from the territory of his country towards Ukraine. Instead, weapons were smuggled into Belarus from Ukraine as gangs had geared up for provocations in the republic. Lukashenko stated that a defence plan for his country had already been developed, and necessary weaponry would shortly be transferred to the republic from Russia.
The Belarusian president urged Kiev to sit down at the negotiating table with Russia unless it wanted to lose its statehood. Lukashenko said that so far he would characterise what was taking place in Ukraine as a “conflict.”
“In a day or two, there will be a war raging, and in three days – a bloodbath,” he told journalists on Sunday.
He denounced the sanctions slapped on the Russian Federation in connection with events in Ukraine, saying that by doing so the West was pushing Russia towards a Third World War.