{"id":11442,"date":"2022-07-04T11:13:05","date_gmt":"2022-07-04T08:13:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/api.pozirk.online\/longreads\/lukasenka-defends-his-complicity-in-russias-invasion-of-ukraine\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T20:29:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T20:29:13","slug":"lukasenka-defends-his-complicity-in-russias-invasion-of-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"longreads","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11442\/","title":{"rendered":"\u0141uka\u0161enka defends his complicity in Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n <span>By Alaksandr Klasko\u016dski, BPN<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t * Reproduction prohibited\n<\/p>\n<p>\n <b>Aliaksandr \u0141uka\u0161enka delivered the first part of his Independence Day address in Belarusian on July 2. His regime has cracked down on Belarusian culture, persecuted Belarusian cultural figures and forced many to flee the country, while opening the floodgates for Russian expansion.<\/b>\n<\/p>\n<h2> <span>Demonizing Ukraine<\/span> <\/h2>\n<p>\n\t In his speech at a grand rally in Minsk, the Belarusian ruler employed Moscow\u2019s propaganda narrative that casts Russia as the only successor to Great Victory over the Nazis and defends its war against Ukraine as a crusade against modern Nazism.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t While many draw parallels between Vladimir Putin and Adolf Hitler, \u0141uka\u0161enka claims that Nazism is rising in all neighboring countries, except Russia, and elsewhere in Western Europe.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t In an apparent reference to Poland, he expressed concern about \u201cthe geopolitical appetite of our Western neighbors, who cast their greedy eyes on the border territories of Belarus and Ukraine.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t As a matter of fact, the continent\u2019s only country to invade its neighbors is Russia.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t \u0141uka\u0161enka said he had spotted manifestations of racism and Nazism in the Baltic countries and accused the West of fostering \u201ca monster\u201d similar to Nazi Germany in Ukraine. He warned that \u201cUkraine\u2019s Nazism is growing into Fascism.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t He does not seem to be aware of the difference between the two totalitarian ideologies. The Nazis believed in the racial superiority of Germans. The Fascists in Italy did not believe in the superiority of a particular race of people.\n<\/p>\n<h2> <span>Regime sees the past as absolution<\/span> <\/h2>\n<p>\n\t \u0141uka\u0161enka, an authoritarian ruler who has imprisoned thousands of pro-democracy activists during his 28 years in power, went on a rant about how Belarusians won their freedom on the World War II battlefields.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t He promised to remind Europeans of \u201cthe terrible traces of bloody crimes of their fathers and grandfathers,\u201d falsely portraying all European nations as Nazi Germany\u2019s allies.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t The Belarusian regime does not have any coherent ideology, except for its ambition to hold on to power. It is looking for support pillars in its twisted interpretation of World War II, which it reduced to the Great Patriotic War, a part of World War II that began with Germany\u2019s attack on the Soviet Union. It sees the suffering and heroism of Belarusians during the Great Patriotic War as unconditional absolution for its sins.\n<\/p>\n<h2> <span>Kyiv, Vilnius, Warsaw in cross-hairs<\/span> <\/h2>\n<p>\n\t \u0141uka\u0161enka\u2019s claims were nothing new. What was new was his allegation that Ukraine had launched missiles at Belarus\u2019 military facilities three days before. \u201cBut, thanks God, Pantsyr air defense systems managed to intercept all the missiles.\u201d&nbsp;\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t It is hard to verify the claim at the moment. Those who caught him lying many times before are unlikely to buy it. The claim might be a preventive justification of his possible future decisions to attack Ukraine.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t He said that about a month earlier he had ordered that the Belarusian Armed Forces aim their guns at decision-making centers \u201cin your capitals,\u201d in apparent reference to Kyiv and the capitals of the NATO neighbors.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t He promised that Belarus\u2019 Polonez multiple-launch rocket systems would instantly retaliate, claiming that his enemies contemplated strikes on Homiel, the Mazyr refinery and the \u0141uniniec and Brest airfields.\n<\/p>\n<h2> <span>\u0141uka\u0161enka claims to be in control<\/span> <\/h2>\n<p>\n\t The Belarusian leader attempted to dispel a widespread view that casts him as the Kremlin\u2019s puppet.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t \u201cIf someone thinks \u2013 media often write about it \u2013 that Belarus is occupied, \u0141uka\u0161enka decides nothing, there is no authority in Belarus and [Vladimir] Putin walks on foot in Belarus and decides everything . . . Remember, not a single step in Belarus, especially today, is made without President \u0141uka\u0161enka\u2019s approval or order.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t His attempts to hummer it home that he is as powerful as before may have the opposite effect. He has been on the defensive too often after the war began. And finally, he has publicly admitted his responsibility for the Russian strikes from Belarusian territory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Alaksandr Klasko\u016dski, BPN * Reproduction prohibited Aliaksandr \u0141uka\u0161enka delivered the first part of his Independence Day address in Belarusian on July 2. His regime has cracked down on Belarusian culture, persecuted Belarusian cultural figures and forced many to flee the country, while opening the floodgates for Russian expansion. Demonizing Ukraine In his speech at [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":0,"template":"","rubric":[22],"class_list":["post-11442","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>\u0141uka\u0161enka defends his complicity in Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine | Pozirk<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"By Alaksandr Klasko\u016dski, BPN * Reproduction prohibited Aliaksandr \u0141uka\u0161enka delivered the first part of his Independence Day address in Belarusian on July\" \/>\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\/11442\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" 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