MINSK, 24 November (BelTA) - Negotiations are needed to end the conflict in Ukraine. Otherwise the country is facing complete destruction, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said as he fielded questions from Russian journalists on the sidelines of the CSTO summit in Yerevan, BelTA has learned.
"Everything is in the hands of Ukraine. I am saying this not because I want Zelensky or Ukraine to deal with this situation solely on their own. Indeed, everything is now in the hands of Ukraine," the Belarusian leader said when asked whether the summit discussed a possibility of a peace treaty with Ukraine. The president explained that this topic was mentioned in passing at the summit, because the situation in Ukraine was not the main topic.
Meanwhile, the Belarusian head of state is convinced that if Ukraine does not want people dying, especially in huge numbers, then the conflict must be stopped. "It's hard, difficult, painful, but they must do it if they want to recover. It needs to be stopped. Because otherwise this will be a complete destruction of Ukraine. It will not be the loss of statehood, something that President Putin said long before the operation. It will be the destruction of Ukraine. It needs to be stopped," the president emphasized.
Aleksandr Lukashenko is confident that over time relations between peoples will be mended, as it happened many times in history, even after major conflicts, including the Second World War. “We were at war with the fascist Germany. We lost 30 million lives. Who remembers this today? Belarus and Russia do a little. Who else? The wounds got healed. We are ready not just to talk to them. We are ready to cooperate, to be friends. This is how things will be after this conflict too. We will cope, we will heal. We (even our generation) will probably be able to explain to the Ukrainian people what happened," he said.
“Therefore, peace talks are inevitable. Peace, peace and once again peace,” the Belarusian leader stressed.
According to the president, more and more anti-war forces are pushing Ukraine towards negotiations. “Europe has finally opened its eyes. If European leaders fail to wrap their head around the situation ... Why do they need this war in their home, at their doorstep? They will sweep away both Scholz and Macron from office. It will happen, you will see. The voices calling for peace talks are becoming louder both outside and inside Ukraine. All these anti-war forces (and there are more and more of them) are pushing the leadership of Ukraine to negotiations,” the Belarusian head of state said.
