January 7, Pozirk. Alaksandar Łukašenka has accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of trying to drag Belarus into the Russian-Ukrainian war.
The statement comes in response to the Ukrainian president’s remark that Łukašenka had apologized to him for the missile attacks launched by Russia from Belarus on Ukraine in the early days of the war.
“Why is Volodya Zelensky acting like that?” the Belarusian strongman said on Orthodox Christmas at a church in Łahojsk, Minsk region. “Why is he whining? What is he missing? They are ordering him. Everything must be done to drag the country into the war.”
Łukašenka pointed out that Belarus might not survive the war as a state. “Let them say that we have a dictatorship here or something. Listen, a dictatorship like that in Belarus is better than democracy like in Ukraine,” he stated.
He also picked on Zelensky for saying “Long live Belarus,” a slogan mostly used by the opposition, in his New Year’s address. “It was as if he was hinting that we would have something like Ukraine soon. That’s what I thought when I heard him. And I think, ‘God forbid.'”
The Belarusian strongman blamed Ukrainian oligarchs for the war. “Zelensky himself is not a poor man. So those who have a lot of undeserved money in their pockets worry about it a lot. They no longer think about the state, they think about this money. And all their presidents were like that. So it all starts with injustice,” he argued.
Łukašenka also said that 2025 will be hard, but “everything will be fine” in Belarus if “everyone looks in the same direction.”
In the interview with American computer scientist and podcaster Lex Fridman on Sunday, Zelensky said that Łukašenka had apologized to him for the missile strikes and blamed them on Russian President Vladimir Putin. The remarks could damage Łukašenka’s reputation in Russia, his key ally.
