Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko will face “problems” at home if he becomes more involved in the war in Ukraine alongside Russia, French President Emmanuel Macron warned on Wednesday.
“If President Lukashenko decides to commit himself further to this war, he will do so against the advice of a large part of his people and he will do so by assuming a responsibility that, I believe, will not be without its problems,” the president said during an interview in France. two.
On Monday, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said he had agreed with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, on the deployment of a joint military group, without saying precisely where it would be deployed and what its scale would be.
A “defensive” commitment
He accused Ukraine and its Polish and Lithuanian allies of preparing “terrorist” attacks and a military “uprising” in Belarus by training “radical” Belarusian fighters to overthrow power. Minsk, however, denies considering sending its army, much smaller than Moscow’s, to fight in Ukraine alongside the Russians.
Belarus assured on Tuesday that the military force formed with its Russian ally is only defensive, at a time when Minsk accuses Kyiv of preparing an offensive, which raises fears of its direct intervention in the Ukraine conflict.
“The objectives of the regional grouping of forces are purely defensive. And all the operations, which are currently being carried out, are aimed at adopting an adequate reaction to the actions carried out near our border, ”explained Belarusian Defense Minister Victor Khrenine, quoted in a press release from the ministry of defense. the. He specified that this force should make it possible to ensure security on the borders of Russia and Belarus.
“In the West, unfortunately, we cultivate the idea that the Belarusian army could participate in the special military operation in Ukraine,” the secretary of the Belarusian Security Council, Alexander Volfovich, denounced on Tuesday.
“By giving in to this kind of disinformation, the leaders of NATO and several European countries are clearly considering the possibility of aggression against our country,” he added.
Belarus has already lent its territory to the Russian army for its offensive against Ukraine, but so far Minsk has not directly participated in the fighting on Ukrainian soil. The entry of Belarusian forces into their neighbor would mark a new escalation of the conflict in Ukraine.
Source: BFM TV
