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Belarus leader Aliaksandr Lukashenka said his country poses no military threat to Ukraine and claimed his earlier statements were only in response to what Lukashenka said were threats from Kyiv to Minsk.
“If (Ukrainian President) Volodymyr Oleksandrovych (Zelenskyy) was offended, I apologise to him for these words,” Lukashenka said.
“Perhaps I shouldn’t have said that, given that he is after all at war. Perhaps I shouldn’t have spoken so bluntly about it. But, on the other hand, he must understand that, as we often say: ‘you reap what you sow,'” Lukashenka said.
At the same time, he argued that Zelenskyy should be more careful in his statements and avoid provoking Belarus.
“No military action should be expected from Belarus, and especially from me,” Lukashenka said as he called Zelenskyy “young and inexperienced,” and “not a military man”.
Kyiv officials have been expressing a growing concern that Belarus may be pulled deeper into Russia’s all-out war against Ukraine.
Zelenskyy said in May that Kyiv is prepared to take “preventive” measures against Moscow and the Belarusian leadership over potential military threats to northern Ukraine, amid a Russia-Belarus nuclear exercise and the resulting tensions with European NATO members sparked by drone incursions in the Baltic.
Earlier in April, Zelenskyy also said that based on Ukraine’s military reports, Belarus is building roads towards the Ukrainian border and setting up artillery positions near Ukraine.
Commander of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces Robert Brovdi also issued a statement saying the military has already identified “500 potential targets” in Belarus as he warned Lukashenka against Minsk’s deeper involvement in Russia’s war.
“The first 500 targets have already been identified. Free and very practical advice: do not stick in Ukraine’s craw,” Brovdi, whose military call sign is “Magyar,” said in a post on social media.
Lukashenka then responded by threatening to strike what he described as a “very serious” target in Ukraine if Belarus was threatened.
Leader of the Belarusian opposition Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya said Lukashenka’s apology to Zelenskyy is proof of Ukraine’s strength.
“First, Lukashenka called on Ukraine to surrender,” Tsikhanouskaya said on X. “Now he is ‘apologising’ to President Zelenskyy.”
“This is what Ukraine’s strength has done. It exposed the weakness of a dictatorship built on lies, fear and dependence on Putin,” she added.
“No staged apology can erase complicity in aggression,” Tsikhanouskaya said, referring to Belarus being a launchpad for Russia’s full-scale invasion in early 2022 and Lukashenka’s continuous support of Moscow’s ongoing war, now well into its fifth year.