Lukashenko tells Putin Ukraine wanted to attack Belarus: he will show “maps”
Valentyna Romanenko – Friday, 11 March 2022, 14:16
Aleksandr Lukashenko, the self-proclaimed President of Belarus, said during a meeting with Russia’s Vladimir Putin in Moscow that "Ukraine was preparing to attack the joint forces of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus on Belarussian territory."
Source: Aleksandr Lukashenko during the meeting with Vladimir Putin on 11 March
Details: During his preliminary meeting with Putin, (which took place in Moscow on 18 February) Lukashenko, who is controlled by the Kremlin, first alleged that "Ukraine’s Armed Forces fired preventatively". He then said that he will show Putin "the maps of Ukraine’s planned attack on Belarus."
Earlier Lukashenko claimed that Putin informed him that if Russian troops had not attacked Ukraine from Belarus’s territory, Ukrainian rockets would have "struck Homel and Mozyr."
According to Lukashenko: "We did not attack them. Ukraine’s Armed Forces began to fire preventatively when we were at your home, two days before…You and I were in a helicopter and were constantly receiving reports. They started it.
And now I will show you where they were preparing an attack on Belarus from. And if 6 hours before this operation a preventative strike had not been executed [it is not clear whose strike on whom – ed.] – 4 positions, I will show you now, I brought a map. Then they would have attacked the Belarusian and Russian troops that were at on exercises. So it wasn’t us who started the war, our conscience is clear."
Background: On the night of 24 February 2022, the Russian Federation insidiously attacked Ukraine from the territory of Belarus and began the advance of troops on several fronts along the border. Putin called this a "special operation" whose ultimate goal was first falsely described by the Russian leadership as "L/DPR assistance" [LPR is the so-called Luhansk People’s Republic and DPR is the Donetsk People’s Republic] and then as "liberation of Ukraine from (unknown) Nazis." Russia is breaking the rules and conventions of war, firing at civilian infrastructure and civilian Ukrainians.
