MINSK, 1 March (BelTA) – Belarus provides medical aid to the Russian military personnel who have been injured in Ukraine and will continue doing so. Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko made the statement at a conference with members of the Security Council and top officials of the Council of Ministers on 1 March, BelTA has learned.
Aleksandr Lukashenko said: “I told Zelenskyy about it [during a phone call on 27 February]. He reproached me for taking in the injured. I said we will continue taking in, treating, and saving them. Every morning the healthcare minister reports what is going on over there to me. We treat them and will continue treating these guys – in Gomel, Mozyr, and I think in some other district capital when they are transported to us. What's wrong with that? Injured people have always received medical treatment during any war. And god forbid the dead have been sent to their native country.”
Aleksandr Lukashenko also dismissed reports about big losses suffered by Russian army units as fake news: “Don't shout about thousands of the dead. We don't see it. And yet this direction is the most dangerous one (they've approached Kiev).”
“Our self-exiled opposition and the rest shout about thousands of injured [Russian military personnel] delivered to Gomel. Nothing like that. We've treated about 160-170 injured in this entire period,” the president said.
Aleksandr Lukashenko also pointed out that the Russian president had instructed the army to deliver “surgical strikes” to avoid hurting civilians. Respectively no carpet bombing is used although this approach increases the probability of personnel losses.
This is why the head of state once again referred to details of his phone call to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy: “I told Zelenskyy: the scariest thing is if Russians show some patience but then switch to carpet bombing like Americans.”
Aleksandr Lukashenko attributed it to special relations in a military unit: “When a battalion is in a firefight and the battalion commander sees that his guys, his children are dying, do you think he will still resort to surgical strikes? He will pull out all the stops to suppress enemy fire.”
Yet Aleksandr Lukashenko stressed that Russian troops should be given proper respect. “They are conducting an operation but still in a surgical manner,” he said.
