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Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko said in an interview that he apologizes if Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was offended by his earlier harsh remarks, while at the same time advising him to "calm down."
Why the harsh comments were made
Asked how his previous criticism of Zelenskyy aligns with his recent proposal for a meeting, Lukashenko said his comments were a response to what he described as threats from the Ukrainian president regarding potential strikes on Belarus.
"I kept silent for a long time. People were even surprised that I remained silent. I understood that the man was under enormous pressure, young, inexperienced, not a military man. But when threats started coming toward me, I had to respond."
An apology with a warning
Lukashenko acknowledged that he may have gone too far in his remarks but stopped short of expressing regret.
"If Volodymyr Oleksandrovych was offended by those words, I apologize to him. Perhaps I shouldn't have said them, considering that he is at war."
However, he immediately added a Belarusian saying roughly equivalent to: "As you sing, so shall you be answered."
"Don't provoke me"
Lukashenko stressed that Ukraine should understand that Belarus has no intention of entering the war directly and that hostile rhetoric toward Minsk is unnecessary.
"He needs to calm down and accept this reality. There is no need to provoke me or provoke the Belarusian people. There are many people in Belarus who want peace, just as he and the Ukrainian people do."
He also claimed that he had offered Zelenskyy possible paths to peace back in 2022.
“If he had listened to me then, we would not be discussing today where the war should stop.”
Recently, Commander of Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces Robert Brovdi warned Belarus after accusations concerning Ukrainian drone flights and said Ukrainian forces already had "the first 500 targets" in Belarus under consideration. In response, Lukashenko threatened a strike on what he called a "very serious" target in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Zelenskyy has warned that Russia could attempt to expand the war northward, including by drawing Belarus more directly into the conflict. However, analysts from the Institute for the Study of War have said they currently see no signs of an imminent ground invasion from Belarusian territory, although Russia could continue using Belarus as a platform for attacks against western Ukraine.
