Negotiations between Russian President Vladimir Putin and the self-proclaimed President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko were held in Moscow on March 11.
During the negotiations, Lukashenko made a number of strange statements. In particular, he said that Ukraine allegedly wanted to strike not only at Donbas but also the territory of Belarus.
Lukashenko brought a map that allegedly revealed the plans of Ukraine’s military to attack Belarus.
He also claimed that foreign mercenaries "are going towards the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and do not lose the hope of draging Belarus into the massacre."
"We didn't attack them. The Armed Forces of Ukraine started preventive shooting when you and I were at your house, 2 days before... You and I were sitting in a helicopter, we were constantly reporting... They started. And now I'll show you where the attack on Belarus was planned to come from. And if 6 hours before the operation there had not been a preventive attack on their positions to – there are 4 of them, I will now show you, I brought the map. They would haveattacked our Belarussian and Russian troops, who were at the exercises. Therefore, it was not us who unleashed this war, our conscience is clear," said the self-proclaimed President of Belarus.
He added to Putin that there is no need to make excuses to anyone. To which Putin replied that no one actually tried to.
Kremlin-controlled Lukashenko called еру Western sanctions against Minsk and Moscow ‘piggishness’. He specified that all Western sanctions are illegitimate and that Belarus and the Russian Federation have always been somehow restricted, but now these restrictions have become large-scale. Putin said Western sanctions would not hinder Russian development and that Russia would end up stronger.
He then said Ukrainian negotiations were taking place practically every day.
"There are certain positive shifts, negotiators on our side tell me," Putin said. "I will talk about all of this later."
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Ukraine's Dmytro Kuleba met in Turkey on Thursday in the highest-level talks since the conflict began. No breakthrough was made.
The head of the Russian Federation noted that the negotiations are now is taking place almost every day and the Russian delegation has notified him of positive developments.
It's worth noting that on March 9, Brussels approved additional EU sanctions against Russia and Belarus due to a military invasion of Ukraine.