(Moscow) The leader of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko said on Tuesday that he had discussed the day before with Russian President Vladimir Putin the “plans” of attack against Russia that the West has according to him prepared, in the midst of the conflict in Ukraine.
“Recently, and we spoke about it in detail yesterday with the Russian president, strategic plans for an attack on Russia have been drawn up”, declared, according to the Belarusian agency Belta, Mr. Lukashenko, who had an interview telephone call with Mr. Putin on Monday.
These “plans” provide for offensives “passing through Ukraine and Belarus”, assured Mr. Lukashenko. “History repeats itself”, he concluded, referring to the invasions of Russia by Napoleon 1er and by Nazi Germany.
Mr. Lukashenko, who once wavered between Europe and Moscow, sided with Russia and supports its offensive against Ukraine, notably allowing Moscow to use Belarusian territory as a rear base.
Last month, Mr. Putin announced that Moscow would supply “in the coming months” to Belarus missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads.
Due to its support for Moscow and the repression of a large protest movement in 2020, Belarus is targeted by Western sanctions, further increasing its dependence on Russia.
Belarus is facing a “hybrid war” and the actions of the West “are bringing the world closer to the abyss of a great war that can have no winner”, said Mr. Lukashenko again.
Echoing this rhetoric separately, the spokeswoman for Russian diplomacy, Maria Zakharova, also accused the United States and its allies of a “hybrid confrontation” with Russia, “which comes dangerously close to an open military confrontation with our country “.
This would mean “an armed conflict between nuclear powers. Obviously, such a collision would carry a risk of nuclear escalation, ”she added in a statement attacking Japan’s support for its Western allies in the face of Russia.
Since the start of the offensive, Moscow has repeatedly brandished, more or less directly, the nuclear threat, Western countries seeing it as an attempt to intimidate them to dissuade them from supporting Kyiv.
