BOBRUISK, 17 June (BelTA) – The development path that Belarus chose in the 1990s was life-changing and the decision to drop the nationalist agenda proved to be right, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said as he addressed the staff of the Belshina company in Bobruisk, BelTA has learned.
The head of state emphasized that the situation in Ukraine is extremely difficult, but he had always cared about the Ukrainians. This is due to a number of reasons, including the Ukrainian roots of the Belarusian head of state, the fact that he did military service in this country, and personal experience. “You cannot even imagine how hardworking these people are. The Ukrainians, ordinary people, the people of Ukraine are candid, strong, courageous, good people. Indeed, they have their own peculiarities. In our country not everything is simple, either. There are all kinds of nations and people, but they are very good people,” the head of state said.
According to Aleksandr Lukashenko, it so happened that nationalism, and even Nazism, began to prevail in the politics of Ukraine. “God forbid, it will evolve into fascism. This is the kind of leaders that came to power there,” he said.
The president recalled that the same scenario unfolded in Belarus in the early 1990s. but, unlike Ukraine, Belarus ‘swept away this evil' and went the other way: “It was not easy to break it. Yet, we did it without a war. Remember the riots taking place here in Minsk, cars flipped over and burned. We had it in the first years of my presidency. The nationalists did not want to give up without putting a fight. But Ukraine succumbed to them. Ukraine has always been more nationalistic than Belarus. We have always been very tolerant and kind, we have been internationalists. Our attitudes were shaped by our history. We suffered a lot throughout our history. We went through the Napoleonic Wars, the First World War, the revolution, the Second World War.”
“Probably, God helped us. We abandoned this in the mid1990s and chose a different path. Our decision turned out to be right, and hopefully it will continue to be so,” the Belarusian leader stressed.
Aleksandr Lukashenko is sure that there are many well-wishers, good people in the world who wish prosperity to Belarus and its people. “There are hundreds of millions of them. Believe me. It's just that the media have been monopolized and have become flooded with fake news. This is the kind of world we are living in now. There is no escaping this. These fake news nearly turned our country upside down in 2020. But time takes its toll. The truth always wins. This is probably the reason why the Lord helps us. They expected us to collapse instantly because of these sanctions and other things. It is hard to explain how we managed to survive and find a way out. Probably, he [God] saw this and helped us. And he helped because we are not that bad after all. This means that we have not yet reached the rock bottom. We are believers, but we do not always act as we should, as it is written in the Holy Scripture. Therefore, it is good to believe and it is simple to do it. But it is much harder to practice what you preach. I think he is watching us. And, he might hit us on the head. He would often hit us on the head, but he spared us, felt sorry for us. So we will make it through this time,” the president said.
