‘A dictatorship like in Belarus is better than a democracy like in Ukraine,’ says Belarusian leader

Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko suggested on Tuesday that Western leaders “pressured” Volodymyr Zelensky to claim in a recent interview that Lukashenko apologized at the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion for air strikes launched from Belarusian territory (and allegedly invited Kyiv to attack the Mozyr Oil Refinery as “compensation”). Minsk has denied the Ukrainian president’s comments.

“Why is Volodya Zelensky acting this way? We were getting along fine — it was even a good relationship,” Lukashenko said, adding, “Why is he yapping? What’s he need now? He’s under orders. They’ll stop at nothing to drag [Belarus] into the war.”

Lukashenko also warned that Belarus would likely not “survive as a state” if it were drawn more directly into the war in Ukraine: “We need to hold out. Let them say we have a dictatorship here or whatever. Listen, a dictatorship like in Belarus is better than a democracy like in Ukraine.”