Events
Lukashenko calls Ukrainian drone attack on Putin’s residence 'barbaric terrorism'
MINSK, 31 December (BelTA) – The Ukrainian drone attack targeting Russian President Vladimir Putin’s residence is an abhorrent act of terrorism, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko told journalists in Minsk, BelTA reports.
“Of course, if these reports are accurate, it constitutes an outrageous act of state-level terrorism,” he said.
“I wonder who stands to gain from such an action and what it can lead to,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said. “Well, who needed it? I suspect it was whoever is behind Vladimir Aleksandrovich Zelensky. I believe that if he was involved, he didn’t fully understand what he was doing. That’s the first thing,” the president said.
Aleksandr Lukashenko emphasized that Russia has had and still has every capability to strike one or another of Zelensky’s residences while he is there. “I’ll tell you more. When the Oreshnik missile was used for the first time, some hotheads (Putin told me this, we discussed it) proposed to him: we should hit these terrorists or even decision-making centers with a second strike. Putin flatly rejected that idea outright,” the Belarusian leader revealed.
The president observed that throughout this conflict, neither side had targeted the other’s leader: “It wasn’t that they agreed not to target one another, but the reality of this war was such that no one had attempted to assassinate the other head of state. No one had done that. And then an attempt was made to strike one of the presidential residences.”
Speaking about the Russian leader’s residence in Novgorod Oblast, Aleksandr Lukashenko noted it is a country house that has hosted many foreign guests. “I remember Putin telling me about the visit of Helmut Kohl, the German leader. That residence shows what Russia is truly like,” he said.
The Belarusian president stated that his Russian counterpart hardly ever visits this residence. “Didn’t the Ukrainians know the president practically never goes there? They knew. So why send drones to this place? Why? It makes no sense,” he remarked.
On the other hand, even if it had been a regularly used residence, the Belarusian leader is convinced such an attack would not have altered the situation on the battlefield.
“That’s why I wonder who is behind this. It’s obvious who. Is Vladimir Aleksandrovich [Zelensky] involved or not? I think if he is, it’s only marginally. If he isn’t behind it, it means that Ukraine is poorly governed, which is a very dangerous situation. So what’s the point? That’s what I’m thinking about, what I’m focused on today,” the president stated. “This is barbaric and stupid… It’s unhinged. This should never have been done. Because it leads nowhere. That’s a fact. That is my assessment.”
“But time will tell what really happened there, and who is behind it,” the head of state added.
Aleksandr Lukashenko noted that he intends to build a better understanding of the incident, gather more information, and draw conclusions, though doing so will require some time.
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