Lukashenko inclines Ukraine to negotiate with Russia, setting Wagner chief as example

Alexander Lukashenko, self-proclaimed President of Belarus, has claimed that Kyiv should reach an agreement with Moscow concerning the territorial claims of Russia and the security of Ukraine before the counteroffensive deprived it of this opportunity.

Source: Alexander Lukashenko at the meeting with journalists on 6 July, Pul Pervogo media outlet

Quote: "Today it is necessary to calm down while it is still possible to reach an agreement concerning the many issues on the table…tomorrow it will be impossible."

Details: Lukashenko drew a parallel with Yevgeny Prigozhin, chief of the Wagner Private Military Company (PMC), whom he inclined to negotiate with during the recent mutiny started by the latter in Russia.

Quote: "Today, at this moment, at 11:00, we can still negotiate whether Shoigu and Gerasimov [Defence Minister and Chief of Armed Forces of Russia – ed.] will be sent to you or not, whether you will meet with Putin or not,  but the moment at least one civilian is killed nobody will talk to you, even me; you will already be a terrorist who kills his own people," Lukashenko told Prigozhin.

He added that he explained to Prigozhin that in the evening of that day the situation could have changed, and then nobody would have talked to him.

Quote: "It is the same with Ukraine. Today, it is possible to negotiate with Ukraine and reach peaceful agreements. It is not so much about Belarus as about Russia. It will negotiate, taking into consideration the current situation, mainly in the front but not only in the front.

After the so-called 'counteroffensive', the situation will change. Will they want to talk to you? [to Ukraine – ed.] This was the parallel I drew with Zhenya [diminutive form of the name Yevgeniy – ed.] Prigozhin when I had this conversation.

But it is really true: today we can talk and reach agreements; tomorrow nobody will negotiate with you anymore. The times change greatly, and the war is ongoing. It’s a pity the politicians in Ukraine do not see it and do not understand it.

We will settle it all later! We will sit down, make an agreement and so on. Everything – sorry for the word choice – will be forgotten. Take the example of Germany: what a war it was; 30 million people have died – so what, do we still scowl at each other? Russia and Germany have been friends before the Special Military Operation [Russian term for the war in Ukraine – ed.]: cheap resources, energy carriers, new generations…The scar has healed somehow. Of course, we do remember everything…but we were making peaceful steps towards each other."

Details: Lukashenko has repeated the Russian propaganda that Russians and Ukrainians are "brotherly nations" and called to "stop right now" because so many bad things have been done but "it can get worse".

He believes that Ukraine and Russia must "sit down at the negotiation table with no preconditions and figure everything out during the negotiations: the territories, the security, the future of Ukraine, Russia and Belarus."

Lukashenko claimed that Ukraine will lose its combat capability, trying to show the result of their counteroffensive to the NATO member states by 11 July, while Russia will resist and then launch a "counterattack", cutting Ukraine’s access to the Black Sea and valuable territories, and "the issue of Ukraine’s statehood will be solved".

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