Lukashenko revealed details of his conversation with Putin on situation in Ukraine
At an operational meeting with the military, the President of Belarus, Aleksandr Lukashenko, revealed some details of his conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin regarding the situation in Ukraine – as reported by BelTA
The Head of State recalled that Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a special military operation in Donbass. Early this morning the leaders of Belarus and Russia discussed how the situation is developing in this region during a telephone conversation. “He gave me a detailed introduction to the situation and, most importantly, to the ongoing developments. He stated that the purpose of the operation is unambiguous: to stop the genocide of the people in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions,” underlined Aleksandr Lukashenko.
The President noted that after the joint exercises, part of the group of Russian troops remained on the territory of Belarus. He explained why such a decision was made, “So that there are no insinuations: during the last meeting in Moscow, I personally suggested Putin to leave a certain number of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in the south of our Belarus. Why? I am not ashamed to say this: we were not ready to cover the southern direction in this situation, since Ukrainian units – military, not border units – advanced to the border and began to conduct manoeuvres there. We saw this, but we never had troops there. Therefore, I suggested to leave some small part [of Russian troops – BelTA’s remark] there, on the southern borders, until we replace them with our Armed Forces.”
“Putin agreed. I emphasise that he told me: ‘You are right, we must do this. This is another chance for crazy politicians in Ukraine to draw the appropriate conclusions. Maybe they will understand that they need to sit down at the negotiating table and make decisions about peace. The fraternal peoples should not fight’. That’s what we agreed on. And not that we were preparing some kind of war against Ukraine. I underline once again: in order for the Ukrainians, as he said, the Ukrainian leadership and politicians made conclusions and understood that these issues should be resolved at the negotiating table,” noted Aleksandr Lukashenko.
