Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko Thursday said Russia, Ukraine and the West must agree to halt the Ukraine conflict to avoid the “abyss of nuclear war” and insisted Kyiv should accept Moscow’s demands.
“We must stop, reach an agreement, end this mess, operation and war in Ukraine,” Lukashenko, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s top ally, told AFP in an exclusive interview in Minsk.
“Let’s stop and then we will figure out how to go on living,” he said during the one-hour interview at the Palace of Independence.
“There’s no need to go further. Further lies the abyss of nuclear war. There’s no need to go there,” he said, speaking on the 148th day of Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine.
Lukashenko accused the West of seeking a conflict with Russia and of provoking the Ukraine war.
“You have fomented the war and are continuing it,” he said.
“We have seen the reasons for this war,” he added.
“If Russia had not got ahead of you, members of NATO, you would have organised and struck a blow against it,” he said, echoing Putin.
Belarus has served as a staging ground for Russia’s intervention in Ukraine, but Lukashenko has so far avoided becoming a party to the conflict.