The international community has not beat around the bush on Belarus’ role in Russia’s war against Ukraine. On 2 March, the United Nations issued a historical resolution condemning the country’s “unlawful use of force against Ukraine”. As a result, most of the countries who had adopted sanctions against Russia have now also extended them to Belarus, including the European Union. But whatever Lukashenko’s words, most Belarusians share this anti-war sentiment.
“Belarusians have fought enough of others’ wars”
In September 2019, Belarussian strongman Alexander Lukashenko said something that still captures the average Belarusian’s attitude towards conflict: “Belarusians have fought enough of others’ wars.” Of all the USSR’s republics, Belarus paid the highest price in terms of human casualties to the “Great Patriotic War” – World War II, in Soviet parlance. Belarusians start any of the other wars into which they were “dragged” earlier, as Lukashenko put it. In fact, war aversion is a deeply rooted sentiment in Belarus, and underlaid the aspiration for neutrality and a non-nuclear status built into Belarus’ 1994 Constitution.
