Opinion: Ukrainian citizens of no value for their authorities

Belarus and Russia need peace in Ukraine, but it is sadly not needed for the Ukrainian leadership – as noted by Belarus’ Information Minister Marat Markov in his talk with the Belarus 1 TV channel

Photo: video screenshot

Earlier, President of Belarus Aleksandr Lukashenko informed on the availability of good proposals for resolving the Ukrainian conflict and warned Volodymyr Zelenskyy against threats to hit the Kremlin.

Commenting on the Belarusian leader statements, Mr. Markov noted, “The most interesting point here is that this issue [the settlement of the conflict] is being highlighted by the President of Belarus. [He says] that Ukraine needs peace, that it is necessary to ensure that Ukrainians do not die. This is primarily needed for Ukrainians themselves. At the same time, Ukraine and Ukrainians should be distinguished from the country's leadership, since these are different concepts in terms of attitude to peace.”

The Information Minister gave a simple example, “The former head of USAID, in an interview with pranksters, got into a conversation and indicated that the agency had been given the leadership of Ukraine $1.5bn in cash monthly starting from 2022, without any report to the US Congress. The fact that the money was allocated to keep Ukraine at war…”

“The value of a Ukrainian for the Ukrainian authorities stands at a zero level, and this is, sadly, true. The President of Belarus indicated that, if the agreements mentioned by Russia had been reached in March 2022 when negotiations began, there would have been no war, and there would not be the unbridled militarised hysteria in Europe, which we observe now,” the expert added. “That is, by and large, Belarus and Russia need peace today, and the Ukrainian leadership does not need it, unfortunately.”