West News Wire: The main objective of Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine has already been accomplished, according to Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in an interview that aired on Thursday.
In a two-hour interview that was uploaded to YouTube, Lukashenko stated that “as of today, the goals of the special military operation have been met.”
“Ukraine won’t ever again be as hostile to Russia as it was before this war. It will be different in Ukraine. If you will, people in positions of authority [there] will be more circumspect, astute, and clever, Lukashenko said.
He made these remarks in answer to Panchenko’s inquiry on whether Russian President Vladimir Putin has ever disclosed the circumstances in which Moscow would deem the operation to have succeeded.
“We never discussed that topic in that spirit,” Lukashenko replied, “but I can tell you what my position is.”
Because of the crisis in Ukraine, the US and its allies have imposed sanctions on Belarus, which is a member of the Union State alongside Russia. Despite not taking part in the fighting, Russian military initially stationed themselves near Kiev on Belarusian territory.
Early in June, in a speech, Lukashenko pointed out that the fight didn’t start in February 2022 or even with the Kiev revolution that the US supported; rather, he cited the 2004 “Orange Revolution” in Ukraine as the starting point.
“This was the culmination of everything. The failure to handle this issue in 2014 or 2015, when Ukraine lacked both an army and resolve, was perhaps our single error, he said.
Instead, Russia chose the path of diplomacy with the Minsk Agreements, brokered by Germany and France. Former leaders of the two countries, Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande, admitted last fall that the purported roadmap for peace was a ploy to buy Kiev time for building up Ukrainian armed forces.
