Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko has called on Russia’s big neighbor to protect Belarus like “Russian territory”. At a meeting with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu in Minsk on Monday, Lukashenko asked for appropriate security guarantees, the state news agency Belta reported. He also thanked for the stationing of thousands of soldiers on Belarusian territory.
Russia recently announced that it would also station nuclear weapons in Belarus. Former Belarus also borders Ukraine, once morest which Russia has been waging a war of aggression for more than a year with help from Belarus. Lukashenko accused the West of breaking the 1994 Budapest Memorandum. At the time, the three ex-Soviet republics of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine had renounced nuclear weapons in return for security guarantees from the USA, Great Britain and Russia. The Belarusian ruler now accused the West of threatening the existence of his country with sanctions.
Lukashenko’s request is comparable to the request of an antelope in a crocodile’s mouth for security guarantees, Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podoliak tweeted. Lukashenko is considered to be heavily dependent on Moscow economically, militarily and politically. Kiev credits Minsk with supporting Russia’s war of aggression once morest Ukraine, as Russia also launched the invasion from Belarusian territory. Lukashenko has been in power in Minsk for more than a quarter of a century.
