{"id":187063,"date":"2026-05-11T17:12:22","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T14:12:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/187063\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T17:12:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T14:12:24","slug":"lukasenka-ignores-putins-revanchism-sees-revanchists-in-ukraine-and-lithuania","status":"publish","type":"longreads","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/187063\/","title":{"rendered":"\u0141uka\u0161enka ignores Putin\u2019s revanchism, sees revanchists in Ukraine and Lithuania"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Alaksandar \u0141uka\u0161enka, speaking at a ceremony in Minsk on May 9, named the alleged enemies of his regime, repeating Moscow\u2019s narratives and distorting facts.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\n (BelTA, Wikimedia Commons, Ukrainian president's website \/ Pozirk's collage)<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

He said: \u201cIdeas of superpowerhood and superiority are growing stronger and inflicting new wounds on the world, now near our borders.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The remark could have been misleading, as some listeners might have concluded that he was criticizing the Kremlin for its full-scale war against Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the Belarusian ruler clarified what he meant:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur enemy is revanchists, direct ideological successors of SS soldiers, Banderites [members and supporters of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists \u2013 Bandera faction] and forest brothers [Latvian, Lithuanian and Estonian partisans who fought against the Soviet Union from 1944 to 1956], those who are removing the remains of Soviet soldiers from Lithuania\u2019s \u0160iauliai right now and call the feat of the Soviet people a myth. Those who methodically erase the victory of the Red Army from the history of World War II and do not let us visit the graves of our grandfathers and great-grandfathers or the monuments that still remain there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this passage, he clearly refers to Ukraine and politicians in the Baltic states. However, his accusations of revanchism against these countries are entirely unfounded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ukraine has never sought to reclaim Kuban from Russia, while Lithuania has not attempted to annex Belarusian territories that once belonged to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Putin\u2019s revanchist rhetoric<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It was Vladimir Putin who described Ukraine as an \u201cartificial\u201d state. The Russian president blamed Vladimir Lenin and his associates for granting Ukraine independence by allegedly taking historical lands from Russia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Putin has also weaponized the imperial concept of Novorossiya (\u201cNew Russia\u201d), a term that entered official use in 1764 after the Russian Empire conquered the Crimean Khanate and established the Novorossiya Governorate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNovorossiya\u201d is frequently invoked by Russian officials to justify the occupation of Crimea and military operations aimed at seizing Donbas from Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u0160iauliai controversy<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As for \u0160iauliai, the city administration has never sought to desecrate the graves of Red Army soldiers. Instead, the city decided to transfer the remains from the city center to the Gink\u016bnai cemetery. The remains were exhumed and reburied by archaeologists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The city acted in accordance with a decision by the Commission on Desovietization, which concluded that the mass grave, located near the city church, violated Lithuania\u2019s law prohibiting the propaganda of totalitarian and authoritarian regimes and their ideologies in public spaces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Josef Stalin\u2019s regime was clearly totalitarian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Half-truths about \u201cliberation\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u0141uka\u0161enka also stated:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur tormented and exhausted Soviet Motherland, which was once great, liberated Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In reality, a number of European countries were liberated by the Soviet Union\u2019s allies. Moreover, many of the countries liberated by the Red Army were subsequently forced to establish communist regimes that suppressed political freedoms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Soviet Union later used troops and tanks to crush uprisings against communist rule in Hungary in 1956 and in Czechoslovakia in 1968.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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