December 17, Pozirk. A Belarusian diplomat’s statement yesterday that Minsk has the right to be “at the negotiating table” during possible future peace talks on Ukraine has surprised Kyiv, Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesman Georgiy Tykhiy has said.
The only right that Belarusian officials can claim is a right to a fair trial when the “aggressor and its henchmen” will answer for the crime of aggression against Ukraine, he added.
Yesterday, Belarusian Deputy Foreign Minister Juryj Ambrazievič dismissed accusations of Minsk’s complicity in the war as “absurd,” echoing an earlier statement by Alaksandar Łukašenka, who denied giving permission to Russia to attack Ukraine from Belarus in 2022. The Belarusian ruler claimed that Kyiv had provoked Moscow while it was withdrawing its troops from Belarus after a drill.
The Belarusian regime violated its own constitution by becoming “an accomplice to Russia’s full-scale armed invasion of Ukraine,” Tykhiy charged.
“The Russian Federation, which used the territory of its ally for armed aggression against Ukraine, is the only source of real security threats to Belarus today,” Tikhiy stressed.
In February 2022, Russia started a full-scale war against Ukraine. Authorities in Minsk kept claiming peaceful intentions and denied the Belarusian army’s involvement in combat operations but allowed Russian troops to attack Ukraine from Belarus on multiple occasions and supplied arms to the Kremlin.
