Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko again called for negotiations, this time in light of the Ukrainian offensive in the Russian border Kursk region, DPA reported, quoted by BTA.
"We need to sit down at the negotiating table and end this dispute. Neither the Ukrainians, nor the Russians, nor the Belarusians need this," Lukashenko said in an interview with the Russian state television channel "Russia 1", the Belarusian news agency BelTA reported today.
Belarus is a close ally of Russia and supports Moscow in its war against Ukraine. At the start of the conflict, Minsk provided the country's territory as a springboard for Russian troops to invade northern Ukraine. At the same time, authoritarian leader Lukashenko has repeatedly offered his services as a mediator for peace negotiations.
The Belarusian president emphasized that the West, and especially high-ranking representatives of the USA, are interested in the escalation of the conflict. "They want us to destroy each other," Lukashenko said.
From February 2022, Ukraine is defending itself against a full-scale Russian invasion, DPA notes.