"You and we don't want a war": Lukashenko is tame with Shoigu - but threatens with "endless operation"

Created: 05/12/2022 13:21

By: Franziska Schwarz

Photo from December 3: Sergei Shoigu (left) with Alexander Lukashenko in Minsk © ---/Belarusian Presidential Press Office via AP/dpa

The Belarusian ruler Lukashenko now wants “comprehensive and humane” negotiations between Ukraine and Russia.

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Minsk/Munich - For the first time since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russia's Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has visited Belarus.

At a meeting with his authoritarian long-term ruler Alexander Lukashenko on Saturday (November 3), it was not just about thanking the Russian soldiers stationed in the neighboring country.

"They really feel at home here," said Shoigu about the Russian military, whose effectiveness is increasingly being questioned internationally.

Putin ally Lukashenko in Ukraine conflict: "We don't want war"

Lukashenko explained: "We're not hiding in the bushes here.

We state our views openly. Neither you nor we wanted and do want a war.” He emphasized that he didn't want to intimidate anyone, but he dished out against his opponents.

Lukashenko said that neither he "nor the country's security services see that they are ready to negotiate comprehensively and humanely.

You see, in our opinion, how the war could continue.

Well then, in that case, the special military operation will never end.”

Belarus supports Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin's war of aggression against Ukraine - for example by allowing Russian missiles to be launched from its territory.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy currently rejects Moscow's "conditions" for negotiations.

Lavrov spokeswoman dismisses Putin's nuclear threats: "West's attempt at diversion"

Almost at the same time there seemed to be "forgiving" tones from Moscow: the Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova had accused the top US diplomat Victoria Nuland at the weekend of wanting to "blame" Russia for nuclear threats - and dismissed them far and wide.

"Nuland has once again harmed herself: first, she inflated alleged nuclear threats from Russia with the help of the media and think tanks she controls, and now she is trying to distract from them," Zakharova wrote on Telegram, according to Russia's state news agency TASS.

Rather, Moscow had "repeatedly stated" that the use of nuclear weapons was "unacceptable."

According to Tass, she was referring to statements that Nuland made to the Ukrainian portal

.