“The only mistake”; Russia and Belarus made “is that we did not resolve the issue in 2014-2015, when Ukraine had no army and was not ready,” said Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko.
In 2014, Russia illegally invaded Crimea and annexed it from Ukraine, and Kremlin-backed militias seized territory in eastern Ukraine.
Lukashenko’s comments, which were delivered during a meeting on Thursday with the heads of security agencies of the Commonwealth of Independent States, which is made up of former Soviet countries, according to Minsk, indicate that Lukashenko has rejected the role of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s puppet. I have fully embraced my change.
Lukashenko has had a love-hate relationship with Putin for nearly three decades in power. but after the Kremlin helped him see Massive street protests after a fake presidential election in 2020, the Belarusian dictator went all-in on Putin helping Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and agreed to host Russian nuclear weapons on their country’s soil.
According to the Belarusian readout of Lukashenko’s speech in Minsk, he Claimed: “We saw this coming,” referring to the Russian invasion. Readout continued that if the war had not started last year, “it would have started tomorrow, but with worse conditions for Russia and Belarus.”
Quoting the Belarusian president, the readout claimed he said: “The only mistake we made is probably that we did not resolve the issue in 2014-2015, when there was no army in Ukraine. We will resolve it peacefully.” However, he used this time to develop a combat-ready armed force.