Opinions & Interviews

Lukashenko calls for truce in Ukraine

MINSK, 31 March (BelTA) – Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko urged to declare a truce in Ukraine as he delivered his annual Address to the Belarusian people and the National Assembly on 31 March, BelTA has learned.

“The question is what to do. You all understand and know that there is only one way out: negotiations. Negotiations without preconditions,” Aleksandr Lukashenko stressed. “I will try to risk proposing to stop the hostilities. To declare a truce without the right to move, regroup troops of both sides, without the right to move weapons and ammunition, manpower and equipment! For everybody just to freeze!”

The president is convinced that negotiations should start right now: “We should stop now, before escalation begins.”

“If Russia used to ask (it asked us too) for weapons and ammunition to protect itself, today they are not asking for weapons anyone. Why? Because the Russian military-industrial complex - and I know it for sure - is unfolding at full power today. If this military-industrial complex unfolds to its full capacity, it will be hard to talk about peace. If this Russian ‘cart’ rolls by inertia, it will be hard to stop it. On the other hand, if Ukraine is stuffed with weapons (Western mainly, there is no Soviet weapons left there), if the military gets additional training, this will also lead to a much bigger disaster. As a result, we will have much more than half a million killed and injured,” the head of state said.

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