Belarus president Alexander Lukashenko has warned that unless the Russia-Ukraine war is stopped the world is staring down the “abyss of nuclear war”.
Lukashenko, a close ally of Vladimir Putin, accused the West of sparking the conflict which began in late February when Russia ordered its troops into Ukraine under the guise of a “special operation”.
However he is now urging Western countries, Russia and Ukraine to come together and reach an agreement or face a more perilous future involving nuclear war.
“We must stop, reach an agreement, end this mess, operation and war in Ukraine,” The Moscow Times reported, citing a Lukashenko interview with AFP.
“Let’s stop and then we will figure out how to go on living... There’s no need to go further. Further lies the abyss of nuclear war. There’s no need to go there.”
Lukashenko has so far managed to avoid becoming too actively involved in the conflict, but has allowed Russia’s planes to take off from its airports and has moved troops to the border to “stop any provocation against Belarus”.
The despot, who has presided over Belarus for three decades, echoed a similar argument to Putin that Russia was forced to invade Ukraine as a pre-emptive strike against Nato forces.
He said: “You have fomented the war and are continuing it. We have seen the reasons for this war.”
“If Russia had not got ahead of you, members of Nato, you would have organised and struck a blow against it.”
The 67-year-old added that the onus for peace talks is now on Ukraine and urged them to negogiate with Russia and “never threaten” the country.
“Everything depends on Ukraine,” he said.
“Right now, the peculiarity of the moment is that this war can be ended on more acceptable terms for Ukraine.”
Earlier this week former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev claimed that peace in Ukraine would be “on Russia’s terms”.
However, president Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has consistently maintained he would not give up land to Russia in any peace settlement to end the conflict.
