The worst thing that could happen (and it actually happened) would be the transformation of the military and political conflict in Ukraine into a proxy war between the West and the East, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said in 2014 answering journalists' questions. Ten years passed and this warning from the Belarusian leader became a harsh reality. In the new episode of the BelTA YouTube project “How It Was”, we will recall how Minsk became a negotiating platform for the conflict that was in its early stages. We will also reminisce about other events that shaped 2014.
The year began with a major sports event. Our athletes performed brilliantly at the Winter Olympics in Sochi. In the unofficial team standings, Team Belarus secured eighth place. An excellent result, considering that athletes from 88 countries came to Sochi! Our team was one of the smallest - only 26 athletes, but those were the cream of the crop of Belarusian sports.
The president was together with our athletes in the first days of the Olympics. The meeting in Sochi was very relaxed, friendly: they had tea, talked about the upcoming competitions. Aleksandr Lukashenko also visited the training session of our athletes. In general, he supported the team not only in words.
The biggest star of the Olympic Games in Sochi was Darya Domracheva. It was she who brought Belarus three gold medals out of five! Aleksandr Lukashenko recognized the brilliant result of Darya Domracheva by honoring her with the highest state award - the star of the Hero of Belarus.
The Belarusian capital had its sports extravaganza too. Minsk hosted the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship. The atmosphere was really incredible. The city center turned into a thoroughfare of endless festive cheer. Flags of various countries, chants in many languages and traditional costumes.
The Ice Hockey World Championship in Belarus set an attendance record. Almost 645,000 spectators visited the arenas during the championship! A little later, the World Championships in 2015 and 2017 broke our record. But Minsk is still in the top three in terms of attendance.
While Minsk was living in the atmosphere of sports, the flames of war were already flaring up in the east of Ukraine. This was preceded by the so-called Euromaidan and the power grab in Kiev.
But not all Ukrainians accepted the new government, which took a course on Russophobia and the glorification of Nazi criminals. Donetsk Oblast and Lugansk Oblast openly opposed the new authorities. Instead of negotiating with them, Kiev used bombs and bullets. A full-scale military conflict erupted in the east of Ukraine.
“Before the revolution I said that the CIS is very important for Ukraine, we will do our best to keep it there. I hoped that Ukraine would not leave. Ukraine has now announced its withdrawal from the CIS, it does not want to take part in its events, which is understandable to some extent. Back then, speaking about Ukraine, I said that the worst thing that could happen (and it actually happened) would be the transformation of the military and political conflict in Ukraine into a proxy war between the West and the East,” the president said at a meeting with journalists in March 2014.
The West did not pay heed to Lukashenko’s warnings in 2014, and even now, ten years later. But the Belarusian president was the one who walked the talk.
In September, Minsk hosted the Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine to discuss peaceful settlement in the east of Ukraine. On 5 September, authorized representatives of Ukraine, the OSCE and Russia signed a document – the so-called Minsk Protocol or Minsk Agreement - calling for ceasefire in southeastern Ukraine. Now some in the West say that they were not going to implement anything. But they were really determined to put an end to this conflict.
Of course, this is not all that 2014 was remembered for. A new building of the Great Patriotic War Museum opened in Minsk, and one of the first visitors was Russian President Vladimir Putin. And the production of Slutsk sashes was also revived in Belarus. We talk about these and many other events of 2014 in our YouTube project “How It Was”.
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