In return, Lukashenko promised that “all (Russian) planes, helicopters and missiles stationed on Belarusian territory remain on the ground during the trip, the talks and the return of the Ukrainian delegation,” Zelensky said on his Telegram channel.
“I say things clearly, as always: I don’t think it will work” but “we have to try”Zelenski declared in a video, before the negotiations scheduled on Sunday between Russia and Ukraine on the border with Belarus.
He added that he did not want Ukrainians to think in the future that he “had not tried to stop the war when there was even a slim chance of doing so.”
Before the invasion, Ukraine had asked for talks with Moscow, which rejected the proposal.
This same Sunday, Russia sent a delegation to Belarus to negotiate a cessation of hostilities agreement with Ukraine. However, Zelensky himself had already remarked the night before his refusal to attend this type of meeting if they were held on Belarusian soil, a nation he accuses of actively participating in the Russian invasion.
Putin had accused Ukraine of “not seizing the opportunity” of the talks.
“The Russian delegation is in the Belarusian city of Gomel and is ready to negotiate with representatives of Kiev; these, showing inconsistency, have not taken advantage of this opportunity so far,” she declared during a telephone conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.
The announcement of a dialogue to end the fighting came after Putin reported that he was putting the “deterrence forces” of the Russian army on alert.
“I am ordering the defense minister and the chief of staff to put the Russian army’s deterrent forces on special combat alert,” he said in a televised meeting with his military chiefs.
Russia has the world’s second-largest arsenal of nuclear weapons. and a huge arsenal of ballistic missiles that form the backbone of the country’s deterrence forces.
“They see that Western countries are not only hostile to our country in the economic field, I mean the illegitimate sanctions,” he added, in a televised speech.
“Senior officials of the main countries of the OTAN they also allow aggressive statements against Russia,” he said.