January 24, BPN. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has commented on Alaksandr Łukašenka’s remarks about the “non-aggression pact” supposedly offered to Minsk by Kyiv.
“Everything that Ukraine officially offers, you hear. We are not going to attack Belarus, and have never intended to,” Zelensky said, as quoted by UNIAN. “That is the main signal from all the Ukrainian people to the Belarusian people.” It is very important for Ukraine that Belarus does not lose its independence and enter into this “absolutely shameful war,” he added.
“I see that the majority of the population of Belarus, just like, I’m sure, most of the military servicemen of independent Belarus, who are the military servicemen of Belarus, do not want to attack us and use force and weapons against Ukrainian society,” Zelensky said. According to him, Ukraine would be surprised to see a specifically Belarusian offensive from the north.
“As for the Russian soldiers who can show up in any territory of any state today, because they think they have a kind of ‘military Schengen,’ I think it all depends on respect of any state’s population for its state and also on respect of the state’s leadership, which is free to let armed people in or ban them from its independent territory,” Zelensky noted.
Russia, he said, can launch a new offensive from Belarusian territory, but the Ukrainian military must be ready for any challenge. “It’s not easy. We need help from [Western] partners, because we have a very large territory. . . . But I believe they will not succeed from this direction,” the Ukrainian president said.
On January 24, Łukašenka told officials in Minsk that Ukrainian authorities had offered Belarus to conclude a non-aggression pact, although they continue to train “militants and extremists.”
“I don’t know why the Ukrainians need it,” he said. “On the one hand, they ask us not to go to war with Ukraine and not to move our troops there. They also suggest signing a non-aggression pact. On the other hand, they are preparing this rattlesnake mixture and are arming them [militants]. Poland and Lithuania have gone completely crazy. Why do they need it? It is not clear. That is why we are forced to react harshly.”
The Ukrainian foreign ministry did not immediately respond to BPN’s request for comments.
Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, told reporters that the Kremlin was not aware of any such offer to Belarus.
This comes amid ongoing Russia’s war on Ukraine. Authorities in Minsk denied Belarusian troops’ involvement in combat operations on the Russian side. However, Belarus allowed Russian troops to attack Ukraine from its territory on multiple occasions.
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