Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, one of Russian leader Vladimir Putin's closest associates, said in television interviews last night that the involvement of third-party troops in the conflict in Ukraine between Moscow and Kiev will inevitably lead to its escalation, Reuters reported, BTA reported.
Lukashenko's comment was on the occasion of the statement of the United States, which announced for the first time that it had come across evidence of the presence of 3,000 North Korean military personnel in Russia. Deputies in South Korea also informed about the same. In separate interviews with the British BBC television channel and Russian state television, the Belarusian president stated that the use of Russian nuclear weapons located in Belarus for any reason requires his personal consent.
Incumbent since 1994, Lukashenko, who said he would run again in January's presidential election if the people wanted him, rejected the idea that North Korea had sent troops to fight on Russia's side in Ukraine.
"Nonsense," Lukashenko told the BBC on the sidelines of the BRICS summit. "Knowing what kind of person Putin is, I can say that he would never convince another country to involve its army in the Russian special operation in Ukraine,", he also said.