{"id":11378,"date":"2022-03-19T11:11:06","date_gmt":"2022-03-19T08:11:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/api.pozirk.online\/longreads\/lukasenka-trying-to-play-a-peacemaker\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T20:29:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T20:29:13","slug":"lukasenka-trying-to-play-a-peacemaker","status":"publish","type":"longreads","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11378\/","title":{"rendered":"Luka\u0161enka trying to play a peacemaker"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n <span>By Aliaksandr Klasko\u016dski, BPN<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n <b>Aliaksandr Luka\u0161enka on March 17 urged Russia and Ukraine to negotiate a peace deal.<\/b>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t \u201cIn other words, we don\u2019t attack Ukraine, we don\u2019t bomb Ukraine. We advocate negotiations. We would like these negotiations to end in this hall [the interview took place in the Green Hall of the Palace of Independence where Normandy Four talks took place in 2015 and where the Minsk agreements on resolving the conflict in Ukraine were worked out]. In this hall would be symbolical. Agreements on Ukraine were signed in Minsk back then,\u201d his press office quoted him as saying in an interview with Japan\u2019s TBS.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t In 2015 Belarus hosted talks that produced an agreement on peace settlement in eastern Ukraine. Minsk distanced itself from Russia\u2019s policy towards Ukraine at the time, whereas now Belarus is seen as a co-aggressor.\n<\/p>\n<h2> <span>Kyiv does not trust Luka\u0161enka<\/span> <\/h2>\n<p>\n\t Although the 2015 peace agreement has not been implemented, Luka\u0161enka benefited politically from the talks by positioning himself as a neutral host. He is trying to play that role again but Kyiv does not take him seriously after he had allowed Russian troops to mass and attack Ukraine from the Belarusian territory.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t \u201cI called Zelenskyy and suggested immediate negotiations with Russia. Literally on the third or fourth day of this war. And he accepted the proposal. We organized three rounds of talks here, in Belarus. Now these negotiations will continue in the videoconference mode. They go on,\u201d Luka\u0161enka told TBS.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Although talks continue, Minsk does not play any role in the process.\n<\/p>\n<h2> <span>Luka\u0161enka no longer in control of his army<\/span> <\/h2>\n<p>\n\t The Belarusian leader said that not a single Belarusian soldier was fighting in Ukraine. But he does not seem to be absolutely confident that Belarus can manage to stay away. He demonizes Kyiv just in case he would have to explain later Belarusian troops\u2019 possible deployment to Ukraine.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t He claimed that Ukraine had planned to attack Belarus hours before Russia invaded it.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t \u201cAt the moment of the conflict on 23-24 [February] they intended to deliver a strike against Belarus\u2019 territory. I\u2019ve talked about it. From four sites. We prevented it. They violate our state border with flying vehicles, a helicopter, and so on.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t \u201cMoreover, they launched two missiles this past week,\u201d he went on to say. \u201cAt least two Tochka-U missiles into Belarus\u2019 territory. Fortunately, we managed to shoot them down. This is why if they provoke us constantly, we will be forced to respond.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Kyiv has denied launching Tochka-U missiles at Belarus.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t His attempts to play up the threat from Ukraine are not convincing. Kyiv has been cautious, trying not to provoke the Belarusian regime.\n<\/p>\n<h2> <span>Belarusian ruler is nervous<\/span> <\/h2>\n<p>\n\t Luka\u0161enka seems to be looking to limit Belarus\u2019 involvement in the war. The scale of Russian operation and Ukraine\u2019s resistance came as a surprise to him.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t He had said last month that a hypothetical war between Russia and Ukraine would not last longer than three to four days.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t In the interview with TBS he said that \u201cRussia will not lose this war.\u201d Observers noted that Luka\u0161enka looked nervous during his conversation with the Japanese journalist.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t He might be concerned that one day he may be prosecuted for his complicity in the invasion. He realizes that the war and Western sanctions may derail Belarus\u2019 economy.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t He hopes that Vladimir Putin will offer generous support to offset Belarus\u2019 losses. Moscow promised some aid during recent high-level talks, but it may not be enough.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Luka\u0161enka may still try to distance himself from the hostility and engage with the West. The recent release of several political prisoners might be an attempt to put out feelers for negotiations.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t But he will not be able to manipulate the tensions between Russia and the West in his favor as successfully as he did after the annexation of Crimea by Russia in 2014. Minsk is much more dependent on Moscow now. As long as Russian troops stay in Belarus, Luka\u0161enka cannot demonstrate any degree of independence from the Kremlin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Aliaksandr Klasko\u016dski, BPN Aliaksandr Luka\u0161enka on March 17 urged Russia and Ukraine to negotiate a peace deal. \u201cIn other words, we don\u2019t attack Ukraine, we don\u2019t bomb Ukraine. We advocate negotiations. We would like these negotiations to end in this hall [the interview took place in the Green Hall of the Palace of Independence [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":0,"template":"","rubric":[22],"class_list":["post-11378","longreads","type-longreads","status-publish","hentry","rubric-theviewer"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Luka\u0161enka trying to play a peacemaker | Pozirk<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"By Aliaksandr Klasko\u016dski, BPN Aliaksandr Luka\u0161enka on March 17 urged Russia and Ukraine to negotiate a peace deal. \u201cIn other words, we don\u2019t attack\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11378\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Luka\u0161enka trying to play a peacemaker | Pozirk\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Aliaksandr Klasko\u016dski, BPN Aliaksandr Luka\u0161enka on March 17 urged Russia and Ukraine to negotiate a peace deal. \u201cIn other words, we don\u2019t attack\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11378\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Pozirk\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pozirkonline\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-24T20:29:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Pozirk_online\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11378\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11378\/\"},\"headline\":\"Luka\u0161enka trying to play a peacemaker\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-03-19T08:11:06+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-24T20:29:13+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11378\/\"},\"wordCount\":683,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#organization\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11378\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11378\/\",\"name\":\"Luka\u0161enka trying to play a peacemaker | Pozirk\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2022-03-19T08:11:06+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-24T20:29:13+00:00\",\"description\":\"By Aliaksandr Klasko\u016dski, BPN Aliaksandr Luka\u0161enka on March 17 urged Russia and Ukraine to negotiate a peace deal. \u201cIn other words, we don\u2019t attack\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11378\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11378\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11378\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Luka\u0161enka trying to play a peacemaker\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/\",\"name\":\"Pozirk\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Pozirk\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/cropped-Logo_color_512.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/cropped-Logo_color_512.png\",\"width\":512,\"height\":512,\"caption\":\"Pozirk\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pozirkonline\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/Pozirk_online\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Luka\u0161enka trying to play a peacemaker | Pozirk","description":"By Aliaksandr Klasko\u016dski, BPN Aliaksandr Luka\u0161enka on March 17 urged Russia and Ukraine to negotiate a peace deal. \u201cIn other words, we don\u2019t attack","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11378\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Luka\u0161enka trying to play a peacemaker | Pozirk","og_description":"By Aliaksandr Klasko\u016dski, BPN Aliaksandr Luka\u0161enka on March 17 urged Russia and Ukraine to negotiate a peace deal. \u201cIn other words, we don\u2019t attack","og_url":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11378\/","og_site_name":"Pozirk","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pozirkonline\/","article_modified_time":"2026-02-24T20:29:13+00:00","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_site":"@Pozirk_online","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11378\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11378\/"},"headline":"Luka\u0161enka trying to play a peacemaker","datePublished":"2022-03-19T08:11:06+00:00","dateModified":"2026-02-24T20:29:13+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11378\/"},"wordCount":683,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#organization"},"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11378\/","url":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11378\/","name":"Luka\u0161enka trying to play a peacemaker | Pozirk","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#website"},"datePublished":"2022-03-19T08:11:06+00:00","dateModified":"2026-02-24T20:29:13+00:00","description":"By Aliaksandr Klasko\u016dski, BPN Aliaksandr Luka\u0161enka on March 17 urged Russia and Ukraine to negotiate a peace deal. \u201cIn other words, we don\u2019t attack","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11378\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11378\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11378\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Luka\u0161enka trying to play a peacemaker"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/","name":"Pozirk","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#organization","name":"Pozirk","url":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/cropped-Logo_color_512.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/cropped-Logo_color_512.png","width":512,"height":512,"caption":"Pozirk"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pozirkonline\/","https:\/\/x.com\/Pozirk_online"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/longreads\/11378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/longreads"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/longreads"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/75"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"rubric","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rubric?post=11378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}