Lukashenka, “This is not an escalation. What is there to fire. You know better than me what’s going on.”

Lukashenka at a meeting with residents of the Gomel region: I don’t want to fight. I am always surprised when people start talking about the war.

Calm down, work calmly, no one is going to attack us. Including Ukrainians. Yes, and Westerners with whom I meet, they tell me: “Alexander Grigoryevich, Mr. President, neither Ukrainians nor Poles are going to you.”

I do not want the Belarusians to be drawn into a large-scale massacre. We use its experience, we study it. We look to our army was stronger. So don’t worry. I don’t want to fight you anymore. I also have children. And you are all my children. I don’t want to have to send you to the front somewhere.

There is a war, NATO is expanding there, and so on, so forth, so on. It’s not easy for us right now. I’m not just dragging nuclear weapons here. It is necessary to secure the country in order to be afraid to look in our direction.

Otherwise, we will again walk under someone’s boot. I want you to take this message first of all from me. This is not an escalation. What is there to fire. You know better than me what’s going on.

WtR