Belarus is not eager to be a peacekeeper, but the conflict in Ukraine needs to be stopped as soon as possible, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has announced at an international expert conference on security in Eastern Europe, reports naviny.by.
“We have been reproached recently that we are eager to become peacekeepers. We are not. We have our own problems, more than enough. But I have already mentioned that we are interested in a peaceful Ukraine. If there is no peace in Ukraine, it will be hot for everyone, not only for us. The conflict must be not just extinguished – it must be liquidated. And can count on us here. We will do everything the conflict party would agree upon,” the Belarusian leader noted. At the same time, he stressed that innocent civilians continue being killed in Donbass, while “not a single article of the Minsk Agreements has been fulfilled yet.”
The Belarusian president also said that Ukrainians and Russians are “a sister nation.”
“For a short period we have hosted more than 150,000 of Ukrainian displaced persons and their families. We are assisting them in finding jobs, having medical assistance, social and psychological adaptation. We are rendering humanitarian assistance to the people from both sides of the division line in Donbass,” he said.
He reiterated the proposal he sounded in 2014 on participation of Belarusian troops in the international peacekeeping corps under the aegis of the UN.
To remind, on February 18, Lukashenko said he was ready to send 10,000 Belarusian troops to Donbass, “I even said to both presidents, Poroshenko and Putin: don’t hope that I will take someone’s side. I will clearly fulfill what you, the two presidents, agree upon: to stand between you – I will do it; to deploy 10,000 Belarusian corps – we will put them on the border where you say,” the Belarusian leader said then.
