Belarusian diplomat equates annexed Crimea to Russian provinces

October 24, Pozirk. Belarus will work with Crimea “in the same way as with other Russian provinces,” TASS reported citing Alaksandar Špakoŭski, a propaganda worker recently appointed as a counsellor to the Belarusian embassy in Russia. 

Belarus has “significantly intensified contacts” with Crimea, he told the participants at the Yalta International Forum in Moscow in a comment about Minsk’s relations with the Russian-held Ukrainian peninsula. Minsk is interested in boosting manufacturing, logistics, and tourism ties and using Crimea’s ports, he said.

Belarus “understands Russia’s motives and shares the goals” of the Russian war against Ukraine, he said, noting that Minsk “has not abandoned efforts to achieve peace among the East Slavic peoples” while adhering to “its allied obligations.”

Four days ago, a bus service connected the Russia-held Crimea to Minsk.

Russia occupied Ukraine’s peninsula in 2014. In November 2021, Alaksandar Łukašenka described Crimea as Russia’s de facto and de jure territory.