May 23, Pozirk. Days after Alaksandar Łukašenka suggested a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, a senior Ukrainian official expressed skepticism.
“Łukašenka is not even a regional player, and therefore he has no influence over the escalation risks emerging today,” Mykhailo Podolyak, an advisor to the head of the Ukrainian Presidential Office, said on the Obychnoye Utro show on May 22.
“If Player [Vladimir] Putin wants to use Belarus as a staging ground for an attack, he will do so. Another question is whether this Player Putin has the resources for it. This is not 2022,” he said.
Podolyak, who lived in Belarus for a long time before being expelled by the Łukašenka regime, described Łukašenka as a liar and questioned the Belarusian ruler’s claim that his country possesses nuclear weapons. He said Russia had sent a single nuclear-tipped Iskander-M missile to Belarus a few days earlier for a joint exercise and that it would return to Russia after the drill, which concluded on May 21.
Russia and Belarus held the joint nuclear exercise from May 18 to 21.
After observing a mock nuclear missile launch at a military base near Asipovičy in the Minsk region, Łukašenka said Belarus would not be drawn into war and added that he would not mind meeting with Zelensky.
