Lukašenka denies information about sending Belarusian troops to Syria

February 8, BPN. At a meeting of the Security Council on February 8, Aliaksandr Lukašenka denied information about sending Belarusian troops to Syria.

“There was another fake yesterday that allegedly the Russian government decided to nearly send our military to Syria,” Lukašenka was quoted as saying by his press service. “This was news to me. You realize that under the current laws this is not possible without the president. But I didn’t send anyone there.”

According to him, “the Syrian leader and the Syrian government” have long asked Belarus to “help with doctors.” “I said: well, if any of our doctors, especially military ones, want to go, they will go. But not now. Because we have a lot of problems of our own right now. This so-called pandemic has not ended yet,” Lukašenka said. “Therefore, in this situation, we cannot even help Syrians with doctors. Although no active combat operations are taking place there, but nevertheless.”

“No, we will not send the military there [to Syria] to fight… We have nothing to do there. Once again, if they need doctors, we would help. On a voluntary basis only and only after the tension in our hospitals subsides. But no, they start playing around: “the Russian government has made a decision.” We had a discussion with the Russian government, in case if we send someone there, so that Russia would support us. If it is a hospital, it is preferable that we work with Russians, as they have a lot of experience. That’s it,” he added.

On February 7, it was reported that the Russian government approved a draft agreement on sending a Belarusian military contingent of up to 200 people to Syria on a humanitarian mission.

The agreement was prepared by the Russian Ministry of Defense, agreed with the Russian Foreign Ministry and “other relevant federal executive authorities, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation” and was provisionally examined by the “Belarusian side.”