MINSK, 20 April (BelTA) – Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko commented on his relations with various Ukrainian presidents as he met with member of Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada Evgeny Shevchenko on 20 April, BelTA has learned.
Aleksandr Lukashenko asked Evgeny Shevchenko to send his regards to Petro Poroshenko. “I would be very grateful if you gave my regards to him, whatever your relations are, when you see him (I guess, you might meet him in Verkhovna Rada),” he said.
“I often see Petro Poroshenko during sessions,” Evgeny Shevchenko pointed out.
“You know, no matter who was the president of Ukraine, no matter how different our views were, we always maintained good relations,” the Belarusian head of state stressed.
Aleksandr Lukashenko also noted that there were different situations. “Please, do not think that Viktor Yanukovych was my favorite Ukrainian president,” the head of state noted. “Not at all. I remember that he banned my flight when I was going to attend the conference on the Chernobyl disaster. First, he invited me, but then, due to pressure from the West, disinvited. You see, there were different situations,” he pointed out.
“As for Viktor Yushchenko, it seemed our relations would not work out at all. However, we established great relations. The same can be said about Leonid Kuchma,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.
The Belarusian president also commented on the recent remarks about Belarus made by Leonid Kravchuk, the first president of Ukraine. “I do not event want to talk about him. I do not understand his behavior, he does not even know me well (although Belarus is not an alien country for him as a person from the Soviet Union), but he still allows himself to make such statements. I do not know what his goal is. It is important in politics: everything serves a certain goal. In this situation, I cannot understand why he is doing this,” Aleksandr Lukashenko noted.
