While Russia insists that its miitary offensive in Ukraine is proceeding according to plan, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko feels that it is taking too long, he told the AP in an interview on Thursday.
“I did not think the operation would drag on like this,” Lukashenko declared. “I am not so involved in this matter to say whether it’s going according to plan, as the Russians say, or the way I feel. But I would like to stress that I feel the operation is taking too long.”
Russia “by definition cannot lose or be defeated in this operation,” and this has to be the starting point of any analysis, Lukashenko told AP. He added that Minsk did everything to prevent the conflict and is currently doing everything it can to end it, pointing out he was the one who arranged the first talks between representatives of Moscow and Kiev, which took place in Belarus.
“I know Russia’s position. I know what Russia proposed to Ukraine. Why Ukraine, on whose territory there is basically a war in which people are dying, why Ukraine is not interested in these talks, is another question. But the answer to that question can be found in Washington,” he added.
Lukashenko brushed away concerns about the ongoing military drills in Belarus, announced out of the blue on Wednesday as NATO started its own exercises on the territory of Minsk’s neighbors – Defender Europe 2022 in Poland, and Swift Response 2022 in Lithuania and Latvia.