Posted: 14.10.2022 15:50:00

Lukashenko: neither Belarus nor Russia wants any escalation, we are just defending ourselves

The President of Belarus, Aleksandr Lukashenko, underlines that neither Belarus nor Russia wants the current situation to escalate, but the two states are forced to respond to the actions of the West and defend themselves. He stated this in Astana, answering a question from Russian journalists, BelTA reports.

Photo: www.belta.by

Answering the question whether the Belarusian Head of State is afraid of an escalation, Aleksandr Lukashenko said, “I’m afraid. I would not want this escalation to happen. We just were standing there with President Putin and discussing this problem. No one wants this. Neither I do not want, nor Russia. Human lives are precious for us. But you understand that it does not depend on us. If the West and individual countries there, you know which, want there to be no escalation, there won’t be any. We’re not aggravating the situation, we’re just defending ourselves.”

In particular, Aleksandr Lukashenko recalled the desire of the Polish authorities to place nuclear weapons on its territory, and now a sociological survey on this topic has been published in Poland. “They already say that more than 50 percent of the population are in favour of having nuclear weapons in Poland. I don’t think that the majority of Poles there adhere to this point of view. But the Polish leadership is already escalating the situation, saying that allegedly these are the Polish people who are asking these weapons to be transported by the Americans to their country,” the President noted.

“Of course, this worries us,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said. The Belarusian Head of State also noted that taking into account the current situation, counter-terrorist measures have been taken in Belarus and a regional group of forces has begun to be deployed in the western direction together with Russia.

The President of Belarus was asked about the size of this group. “You know the size of our army: about 70,000 people. This is the basis. I think that 10-15 thousand from Russia is not necessary now because there are enough other problems there and you are aware of them. Therefore, now we will proceed from this. We are preparing our guys,” he replied.

The journalist recalled the words of the Head of State that the main thing is to prevent Belarus from being drawn into hostilities. “You hold on, will it be possible to prevent?” he asked.

“Absolutely. Even if we are drawn there, we will be able to resist it. We will keep this direction. It is clear, as they are already openly saying (I do not want to name sources). At their gatherings in Warsaw the Americans say that they will go straightforward. We see and hear this. What does it mean to go straightforward from Warsaw? It means through Belarus, as some once used to travel. They are unlikely to succeed. We see it, hear it, and it worries us. We are trying to resist it. That’s all politics,” the Belarusian leader said.