Lukashenko sees conflict in Ukraine as main risk for Belarus

Washington is going out of its way to drag Belarus into the conflict in Ukraine, Belarusian President and Chairman of the 7th Belarusian People’s Congress Aleksandr Lukashenko said at the meeting of the Congress on 25 April, BelTA has learned.

The head of state noted that the delegates had heard more than once that the military and political situation in the region and the world is assessed by experts as a crisis that has the potential to spill over into a global conflict. On the first day of the meeting on 24 April, the president spoke in detail about the reasons for the new round of confrontation between the West and the East.

“Today we’ll talk about the forces and means that are used to intensify threats to our national security. The main real risk is having a hot spot in the region, in Ukraine ,of course. Washington is doing everything to drag our country into the conflict, to launch a mechanism to involve other states into it, in other words, to weaken both Western Europe and Eastern Europe,” Aleksandr Lukashenko emphasized.

Describing the situation on the front, the head of state recalled heavy fighting and loss of life, a shortage of ammunition and military personnel in the Ukrainian army. He also mentioned drone strikes on Russian infrastructure, financial and military assistance from the United States. “Withholding this money means missing out on the opportunity to weaken us and Russia,” the president said. “The allocation by the USA of $60 billion for the war is the most important factor contributing to the escalation of the conflict in Ukraine. And it is very dangerous that long-range missiles were provided.”

On the other hand, the Russian army is equipped with new weapons and has large reserves in each brigade, the president remarked. The Russian military is inching forward, although this progress is very slow, Aleksandr Lukashenko noted. “A kind of zugzwang has set in - neither they, the Ukrainians, nor the Russians...” he noted.