MINSK, 17 December (BelTA) – Russian President Vladimir Putin wants peace, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said in an interview with the U.S. media company Newsmax, BelTA has learned.
“I am now convinced that Putin wants peace. I will not specify the reasons; you know them well. They encompass both internal and external factors,” said the head of state. “I am sure, Zelensky wants the same thing, especially now. He wants peace. However, their visions for how this war should end differ.”
Aleksandr Lukashenko also expressed support for the position of U.S. President Donald Trump, who has declared that the resolution to the Ukraine conflict must be based on the realities on the ground as they stand today.
The interviewer, Greta Conway Van Susteren, asked the Belarusian head of state why Russian President Vladimir Putin started military action in Ukraine and what his aims were.
In his response, Aleksandr Lukashenko outlined the complex origins of the conflict. He pointed to the oppression of Russian-speaking people in Ukraine, noting that in Odessa such people were even burned alive as enemies. “This policy was elevated to an official level in Ukraine,” the Belarusian leader remarked.
To make the point more clear to an American audience, the head of state invoked an example of Mexico. He noted that if pro-American people living near the border were subjected to such treatment there, the United States would have wiped that country off the map. “God forbid, of course. I am simply citing this as an example,” the president added.
Aleksandr Lukashenko emphasized that if the Ukrainian authorities genuinely wanted to implement a specific language policy, it should have been carried out gradually and calmly and over many years. Instead, the decision was made to simply “shut the mouth” of the Russian-speaking population.
“And then, I am telling you this as an experienced politician, if you live next to a ‘sleeping bear,’ you should not wake it. Find a way to have normal relations,” said the head of state, reflecting on missed opportunities for peace. “After all, I know this, I witnessed it, I took part in these negotiations: Russia reached agreements with Ukraine concerning both Crimea and security issues. The military bases in Crimea (Ukraine did not need them) would have remained Russia’s. Russia supplied energy to Ukraine at half the global price. I saw this under Yeltsin and under Putin. Relations were normal.”
Follow us on:
