Lukashenko blames Ukraine for war, warns Belarus will join fight if attacked
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The authoritarian Belarusian leader, Alexander Lukashenko, on Thursday blamed Ukraine for provoking Russia’s full-scale invasion last year, and he insisted that Belarus was “a peaceful nation” despite allowing its territory to be used as a staging ground for the war.
But in typically convoluted remarks at a news conference in Minsk, Lukashenko seemed to once again resist any pressure from Moscow to send his own troops into Ukraine, warning that he would do so only if his country was attacked.
In comments that he dressed up as a stern warning to Ukraine and other Western nations, Lukashenko said: “I am ready to fight together with the Russians from the territory of Belarus only in one case: if at least one soldier sets foot in Belarus to kill my people.”
“If they commit aggression against Belarus, the answer will be immediate,” he said. “The war will acquire a completely different scale.”
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