President of Belarus says Ukraine rejected his help in ending the war in the Donbas
President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko said that Ukraine rejected his initiatives to help end the war in the Donbas.
“Given that Russian and Ukrainian people are good with me, I was ready to stand on that border as a border guard and to arrange an election compliant with the Minsk Agreement. […] But guess what? The ones who need to stop this war, primarily Poroshenko and the Ukrainians, rejected the offer. They explained their attitude by saying that Lukashenko is pro-Russian,” Lukashenko said at a press conference on Friday, Interfax reports.
At the same time, he called for practical steps to resolve the conflict in the east of Ukraine, Belta news agency reports.
“Should we, Slavs, fight here? We look the same, we are the same people,” Lukashenko said.
He believes that it is necessary to stop the war with “forgiveness”.
“The three of us (Russia, Ukraine and Belarus) can find a solution. How to do it? We need to sit down and think, but we should forget about attacks. We may need to take something out of brackets, to forgive something at some point. After all, people forgave Germans – 30 million died – people have almost forgotten this. Thank God, nothing like this in our relationships. So let’s take steps,” he said.
Lukashenko believes that “crazy nationalists” will soon appear in the Donbas if military actions are not stopped.
“The further, the worse. I will tell you my position. Everybody is afraid that NATO will be there. Recently, I told Vladimir Vladimirovich [Putin]: ‘Listen, we will soon ask the Lord to see NATO there instead of crazy nationalists with guns. This is what this situation can lead to’,” he said.
"Are you not surprised that the United States is withdrawing from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treatyat this moment. Now take a moment to imagine that I will have missiles with nuclear warheads near Gomel, and you will have missiles near Rostov. How? Is this what we wanted? So it is not too late, you have to take steps to stop this,” the Belarusian President said.