Łukašenka meets Pushilin in Minsk, promises assistance to Donetsk region run by Russia-backed separatists

April 18, BPN. “The Donetsk People’s Republic needs to recover” and has “a lot of work ahead,” Alaksandr Łukašenka has told Denis Pushilin, leader of pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine’s breakaway region of Donetsk, at their meeting in Minsk.

Łukašenka noted the need to revive industrial enterprises and agriculture in the Donetsk region to make the area more attractive for people to return.

“We are ready to provide the necessary assistance and support so that the people, who are not strangers to us, will finally stop suffering,” his press office quoted him as saying.

In April 2014, Russia-backed separatists proclaimed a republic in the part of the Donetsk region of Ukraine not controlled by Kyiv. In late July 2022, Pushilin visited Belarus’ city of Brest and met local officials.

In September 2022, Vladimir Putin approved the incorporation of Ukraine’s breakaway regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson into the Russian Federation. A few days earlier, Russia said it held referenda in occupied Ukrainian territories.

Ukraine, Western countries, and the UN have not recognized these decisions.

Belarus has not recognized the independence of the breakaway regions and their incorporation into Russia, but Łukašenka has supported Russia’s war on Ukraine.

The Belarusian ruler also visited Georgia’s breakaway region of Abkhazia last fall without informing Georgian authorities about it.