Jerusalem Post
The president denied that Belarus was taking part in the fighting, adding that no missiles were being fired from Belarusian territory • “Nuclear war is the end of everything”
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko warned that Western sanctions were pushing Russia towards a “third world war,” as The Washington Post reported that Belarus was preparing to send troops into Ukraine on Sunday. “In a situation like this, we should be aware that there are such sanctions. A great deal is being said about the banking sector. Gas, oil, SWIFT. It’s worse than war,” said Lukashenko at a referendum on changing Belarus’s constitution, according to the president’s website. “Russia is being pushed towards a third world war. We should be very reserved and steer clear of it. Because nuclear war is the end of everything.” The Belarusian president stated that the retaliatory sanctions by Russia and Belarus would be very sensitive in order to ensure that they do not also impact them. Lukashenko claimed that America is the “only beneficiary” of the current conflict, saying that the US aimed to “put Europe in its place and remove competitors.” “Today we must stop the war,” Lukashenko stated while casting a ballot at the referendum. “I would not even call it ‘war’ right now: It is still a conflict. Another day or two and there will be a war. In three days – a meat grinder.” The Belarusian president added that Russia aimed to “restore Ukraine,” without specifying what it would be restored to. Lukashenko denied that Belarus was taking part in the fighting, adding that no missiles were being fired from Belarusian territory, except for “two or three rockets” which were fired on February 23 after Ukrainian missile batteries were allegedly detected near the country’s border. “Russia does not need this. They have ammunition, cartridges, machine guns, and enough people to solve the problems that Russia wants to solve,” he said, claiming that Belarusian and Russian people in Ukraine were being beaten and poisoned. “They started beating them, poisoning them. They threaten us with terrorist acts.”
