Lukashenko turns against Putin and extends a hand to Zelensky

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• Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko considers a military victory for Russia or Ukraine unrealistic and calls for negotiations.
• In an interview, he apologized to Volodymyr Zelenskyy for previous harsh remarks, should the latter have felt offended.
• At the same time, Lukashenko emphasized that Belarus poses no threat to Ukraine and that his country must not be dragged into the war.

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Since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Alexander Lukashenko has been one of Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin’s closest allies. This makes the statements the Belarusian leader recently made in an interview with the Arab broadcaster Al Arabiya all the more noteworthy.

In the interview, Lukashenko stated that neither Russia nor Ukraine could win the war by military means. Both sides are now suffering from a shortage of soldiers. Therefore, he said, compromises and new negotiations are needed to end the conflict, which has now lasted more than four years.

His remarks to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy were particularly noteworthy. As reported by the state news agency Belta, Lukashenko apologized for his earlier harsh attacks on the Ukrainian leader. “If Volodymyr Alexandrovich was offended, I apologize for those words,” he said. At the same time, he added that Zelenskyy, for his part, must act more cautiously and not provoke Belarus.

Lukashenko insisted that Belarus poses no threat to Ukraine. Kyiv has no reason to fear attacks from Belarusian territory. He pointed out that his country’s direct entry into the war would entail significant risks. Belarus is militarily vulnerable, the population opposes war, and a new front along the more than 1,500-kilometer-long border would further exacerbate the situation.

Lukashenko does not believe in a quick victory

Lukashenko also argued that Ukraine does not have enough soldiers to deploy additional forces to the border with Belarus. The real problem of the war, he said, is now the shortage of personnel on both sides. “We’ve run out of people,” he said in the interview.

The Belarusian president also expressed fundamental skepticism toward military solutions. He argued that there is no military solution, neither in the war in Ukraine nor in the conflict between Israel and Iran. The outstanding issues can only be resolved at the negotiating table.

At the same time, Lukashenko stuck to his previous assessment that Russia is making slow progress on the battlefield. The Russian forces are gaining ground step by step, while Ukraine is suffering primarily from a shortage of personnel. However, he no longer sees a quick victory for Moscow either.

These statements come at a time when tensions along the border between Belarus and Ukraine are rising again. Ukrainian military officials had recently warned of possible Russian activities originating from Belarusian territory. Lukashenko dismisses such fears and emphasizes that his country does not want to be drawn into the war.