Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko attacked Volodymyr Zelensky while talking about the airfield explosion that took place in Machulishchy on February 25.
Blaming the incident on Ukraine’s president personally, Lukashenko called him a “nit”:
He is a nit, because he keeps running around Belarus, sending in his people, and asking, as I said before, “Let’s sign a nonaggression pact, let’s make a deal, we don’t have any mutual complaints.” And I would say to this, “We’re not planning to attack.” […] And in the meantime…
The incident in Machulishchy
Returning to the topic of the damaged A-50 aircraft, Lukashenko said: “The gauntlet has been thrown down.” Blaming Ukraine for the souring relations between the two countries, Lukashenko repeated that Belarus doesn’t intend to join the war:
If you think that by throwing down the gauntlet you can embroil us, starting tomorrow, in the war that’s taking place today all over Europe, you’re mistaken.
Lukashenko also threatened “the harshest purges” against Belarusian opposition.
Repressions in Belarus
- Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya convicted of conspiracy, sentenced to 15 years
- Prosecution requests 19-year prison terms for Belarusian opposition leaders, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya and Pavel Latushko, tried in absentia
- Belarusian human rights activist and Nobel Prize winner Ales Bialiatski sentenced to 10 years in prison